The term “first” episode of mania is commonly used in the medical literature, but patients who have had only one episode of mania do not know whether or not the episode they had is the first episode of many manic, hypomanic, or depressive episodes.
Patients, family members, and clinicians are put in a difficult situation after patients have fully recovered from the single (first) episode of mania. For how long should maintenance (preventive) treatment with a mood stabilizer and or a second-generation antipsychotic be continued?
Single (first) episodes of mania typically occur by the age of 25 years. These young patients are faced with the difficult prospect of having to take maintenance (preventive) treatment for an indefinite period of time, and, understandably, question its necessity, given that they have had only one episode of mania and have recovered completely from it.
In this article, we will look at the probability of recurrence of illness over different periods of follow-up, which will guide extremely important recommendations that we should make to these patients.
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