Pharmacological prevention of mood episodes in women with bipolar disorder during the perinatal period: A systematic review of current literature

Objective: This review examined the efficacy of mood stabilizers and antipsychotics in patients with bipolar disorder during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Methods: PubMed was searched for reports between 01 January 1996 and 31 December 2019 by using combinations of key words bipolar disorder, pregnancy, postpartum period, puerperium, prophylaxis, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, lithium, lamotrigine, valproate, carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, aripiprazole, haloperidol, and chlorpromazine. Results: The present reports included a total of 256 patients using lithium (n = 143), lamotrigine (n = 73), valproate (n = 17), olanzapine (n = 17), quetiapine (n = 4) and haloperidol (n = 1) during pregnancy or the postpartum period. Recurrence rates in pregnant patients using lithium (n = 79) and lamotrigine (n = 17) were 22.7 % and 41.2 %, respectively. According to very limited data, none of the patients using valproate (n = 2), quetiapine (n = 3) or olanzapine (n = 6) experienced a new episode during pregnancy. A recurrence was reported in 12 (70.6 %) of 17 patients using valproate during the postpartum period. The same recurrence rates in patients using lithium (n = 123), lamotrigine (n = 63), olanzapine (n = 17) and quetiapine (n = 3) were 20.3 %, 7.9 %, 11.7 %, and 33.3 %, respectively. Conclusions: This review suggests that lithium, lamotrigine and olanzapine seem to be effective in preventing new mood episodes in patients with bipolar disorder during the perinatal period.