Abstract

Background: Bipolar Disorder is a psychiatric condition highly disabling, with elevated rates of psychiatric and medical comorbidities that contribute substantially to morbidity and mortality. Pathophysiology of the illness is not well known but recent biologic and pharmacological studies suggest that altered receptor-mediated signal transduction mechanisms contribute to the pathophysiology of the disease. Accordingly, medications with effect in these signal transduction mechanisms are supposed to be useful in the treatment of Bipolar Disorder, such is the case of tamoxifen. Animal model studies and clinical trials have been conducted to address the efficacy and side-effect profile of tamoxifen.

Objective: In this review we take a closer look to some of the findings regarding the potential role of tamoxifen in the treatment of patients with Bipolar Disorder.

Method: We conducted a systematic literature search on PubMed looking for studies that used tamoxifen for the treatment of Bipolar Disorder.

Results: A limited number of clinical studies concerning the effect of tamoxifen as a treatment in Bipolar patients were identified.

Conclusion: Mechanism of action of tamoxifen suggests that it could be useful in patients with manic episodes; however more evidence is desirable to evaluate the efficacy of tamoxifen in different clinical profiles of patients with bipolar disorder.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder, manic episode, tamoxifen, protein kinase c, selective estrogen receptor modulators.

Graphical Abstract