Topiramate Abuse in a Bipolar Patient With an Eating Disorder

Letter to the Editor

Sir: Topiramate is a new anticonvulsant drug that has recently been introduced and marketed as a potentially useful mood stabilizer with a possible antimanic profile. Its mode of action is multifactorial and involves blockage of voltagedependent sodium channels. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not approved its psychiatric use, several groups all over the world are assaying this promising drug with resistant bipolar patients, and some naturalistic evidence has been provided by open studies about its mild-to-moderate efficacy in the treatment of manic syndromes or as a coadjunctive mood-stabilizing agent.