Treatment of acute mania.

Treatment of acute mania requires attention to both specific and nonspecific antimanic medications. The choice of specific agents now includes lithium, carbamazepine, and valproate; and nonspecific agents include benzodiazepines, calcium channel blockers, alpha adrenergic agonists, as well as neuroleptic drugs. Treatment-resistant manic states are best treated by careful sequential strategies that may include polypharmacy and electroconvulsive therapy.