[Pharmacotherapy of depression in patients with and without conversion from depression to mania in the course of bipolar affective disorder].

To answer the question whether the kind and duration of the applied antidepressant therapy is a risk factor for the occurrence of mania directly after depression, the treatment of depression relapses in 30 patients with switch from depression to mania in the course of bipolar disease, and the treatment of 30 (appropriately selected) patients without this change was compared. No differences in treatment procedures were stated in comparable relapses, apart from more frequent application of lithium carbonate and carbamazepine in the patients with the switch from depression to mania. It was shown that long-term application of antidepressant drugs is not connected with the increased risk of such change.