From the clinics to the bench and back - phenytoin as a mood stabiliser?
Tuesday, March 30, 2010 - 05:21
in Health & Medicine
Phenytoin is a well known antiepileptic agent widely used throughout the world. Recent clinical studies in patients with bipolar disorder have suggested that, as for other anticonvulsant drugs commonly used in the treatment of bipolar patients including valproate and carbamazepine, phenytoin may have mood-stabilising effects in addition to its well-known anticonvulsant properties. In a study published in the March 2010 issue of Experimental Biology and Medicine Veronica Mariotti and colleagues utilised DNA microarrays to investigate the molecular underpinnings of the potential mood-stabilising action of phenytoin by looking at its effect on gene expression in the rat brain...