Use of long acting antipsychotics and relationship to newly diagnosed bipolar disorder: a pragmatic longitudinal study based on a Canadian health registry.

Data from a large number of patients treated naturalistically in Quebec with long-acting antipsychotics suggests that these compounds, prescribed to treat symptoms of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorders, were maintained when mood symptoms emerged, even in cases when the diagnosis changed to bipolar disorder. This pragmatic study supports the need to explore this intervention as potential treatment for affective disorders.