Understanding Your Treatment Options for Bipolar Disorder

Millions of people in the United States have bipolar disorder. This mood disorder causes drastic and unexpected changes in emotions and energy that affect function. Bipolar disorder symptoms vary in severity and benefit from individualized treatment plans to best manage those symptoms.

At Reviv Functional Medicine & TMS Wellness Center in Fullerton, California, our compassionate and skilled psychiatrist, Dr. Hina Sidhu, takes a holistic approach to mental well-being. We use a combination of traditional psychiatric interventions and lifestyle changes to help our patients with bipolar disorder live a happy and fulfilling life. 

Read on to learn more about bipolar disorder treatment options and what may work best for you.

Start with a psychiatric evaluation

To understand your unique mental health needs, you must have a psychiatric evaluation. Even if you have a bipolar disorder diagnosis, we perform this thorough exam so we understand your story and your current mental and emotional state.

The specifics of your psychiatric evaluation depend on many factors, but we may include standardized psychological tests to establish a diagnosis and direct your treatment plan.

The psychiatric evaluation also allows us to learn more about you and your life to create a personalized plan that works with your lifestyle and goals.

Prescription medications

Psychiatric medications are one of the treatment options for bipolar disorder and may include mood stabilizers, antipsychotic drugs, and antidepressants.

Mood stabilizers

Lithium and valproic acid are mood stabilizers for bipolar disorder. These medications reduce the manic symptoms that occur in people with bipolar disorders. Some also help lift the depression.

Antipsychotic drugs

Antipsychotic drugs are also used to stabilize mood changes in people with bipolar disorder. Haloperidol, aripiprazole (Abilify®), and olanzapine (Zyprexa®) are examples of antipsychotic medications. 

Antidepressants

Depression is one of the most devastating mood changes in people with bipolar disorder. Antidepressants are often part of the treatment plan for bipolar disorder to alleviate depression symptoms. 

Individualized therapy

Prescription psychiatric medications reduce the severity and frequency of the mood swings, but they don’t work all alone. 

To gain the most benefits from medications, you need individualized therapy to better understand your mood, identify mood change triggers, and develop strategies to prevent or reduce symptoms that affect your quality of life. We customize therapy plans using therapeutic techniques that can best help you. 

For our patients with severe depression from their bipolar disorder, we may recommend transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) therapy. This noninvasive treatment reactivates neural activity in the part of the brain that controls mood.

Lifestyle modifications

Taking care of your physical and emotional well-being is an integral part of managing bipolar disorder. We help our patients make small changes to their daily habits that benefit their mood, such as:

• Getting regular exercise
• Eating healthy meals
• Sleeping at least 7 hours a night
• Finding healthy outlets to relieve stress

Bipolar disorder is a chronic disease that requires ongoing medical management to monitor symptoms and treatments and make updates when appropriate. 

Treatment options for bipolar disorder are changing thanks to advances in medical research. If you’re struggling with mood changes that make it challenging to work, go to school, or socialize, we can help. 

Schedule a consultation by calling our office today or clicking the book online button. We also offer telemedicine appointments.