[Effectiveness of finlepsin in the prophylactic therapy of phasic affective psychoses]. / Effektivnost' finlepsina pri profilakticheskoi terapii fazno protekaiushchikh affektivnykh psikhozov.

The article presents new, specified results of the use of finlepsin (carbamazepine) for the secondary prophylaxis in patients with endogenic affective psychoses. The data have emanated from a 5-year observation of the course of therapy of 73 patients. A positive effect was observed in 83% of cases, including 27.7% of cases with complete disappearance of circulation. No significant differences in the drug efficacy have been found in patients with manic-depressive psychosis versus schizophrenia. Yet, in most of the schizophrenics the phases have disappeared, while patients with manic-depressive psychosis have presented only partial improvement. The authors recommend that doses at the initial stages of treatment be increased in a gradual manner. Variants of a positive therapeutic time-course are described. They have also determined a period of time (3.5-4 months) after which the continuation of the therapy should be considered inadvisable in case of no favourable effect.