Pharmacologic treatment of manic and depressive illness.

In following the course of any patient who is being treated with psychiatric medication, the treating physician must at all times focus on the course of the primary symptom complex for which the treatment was undertaken; the therapeutic changes induced by the medication, following an appropriate latency; toxic side-effects and other effects of the medication, and their influence upon the patient's resistance to drug therapy and psychotherapy; the effect of the movement on the manic-depressive spectrum induced by the drug on the patient's affect, attitude, and behavior; and the psychodynamic responses to all these inputs.