Research suggests adjuvant folic acid may benefit some patients with bipolar disorder.

MedWire (4/3, Cowen) reports that, according to a study published online in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, patients with bipolar disorder who are “in an acute phase of mania may benefit from treatment with folic acid as an adjuvant to sodium valproate.” For the study, researchers from the Iran University of Medical Science “recruited 88 clinically manic patients, aged an average of 35 years, with type I bipolar disorder.” Next, “the participants were divided into two groups to receive either sodium valproate plus folic acid or sodium valproate alone for three weeks.” The team assessed “the severity of mania” by “using the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), with higher scores indicating more severe mania symptoms, at the beginning of the study, and again at the end of the first, second, and third weeks.” At study start, “mean YMRS measurements were similar in both groups,” but “fell…after the first, second, and third week of treatment in the folic acid group,” as compared with the control group.