Abstract
The authors present the preliminary results of studies on prophylactic effect of combined therapy with lithium and carbamazepine in patients with rapid cycling bipolar affective disorder. In 11 patients with earlier inefficacious prophylaxis with lithium, the addition of carbamazepine resulted in the significant improvement of therapeutic effect in 8 patients (73%). The better effect was observed in the patients with shorter duration of illness and shorter duration of lithium treatment. The number of side effects during combined treatment was reduced comparing with that observed during lithium.