Am J Psychiatry 1986; 143:1450-1453
Copyright © 1986 by American Psychiatric Association
Efficacy of clonidine in 24 patients with acute mania
MC Hardy, Y Lecrubier and D Widlocher
The authors treated 24 newly hospitalized patients suffering from acute
mania with 450-900 micrograms/day of clonidine, an alpha 2-adrenergic
agonist, for 2 weeks. A marked decrease in manic symptoms was observed
after 5 and 13 days of treatment in about half of the patients. Early
response seemed to predict the final result. Patients with a family history
of affective disorder and patients who had had a good response to
neuroleptics during a previous manic episode tended not to respond to
clonidine. At the doses given, the patients' tolerance to clonidine was
excellent: sedation was markedly lower than it is with neuroleptic
treatment.
