Disorders & Medication Mood stabilizers. Lithium was the first compound which was found to be useful in the prophylaxis of bi-polar disorder. It was known at the end of the 19th century that lithium had a role in the treatment of depression, however, because of its toxicity lithium was not widely used. Click here for more information! Depression. Depression is a disabling condition which affects many people during the course of their lives at some time.If it is severe it needs professional treatment,but most people will recover from it with the help of medication and/or psychotherapy. Click here for more information! Schizo-affective disorder. For many years the diagnosis of schizo-affective disorder was a contentious one.Many patients previously diagnosed as suffering from bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia have been rediagnosed as schizo-affective.This disorder has now generally be accepted as a diagnosis in its own right. Click here for more information! Schizophrenia Schizophrenia is a major cause of disability and 1 in 100 of the population will suffer from it some time in their lifetime.Great strides have been made in the treatment of schizophrenia and now most patients are able to live in the community.There are three main types of symptoms-positive,negative and cognitive. Click here for more information! Anxiety Everybody experiences some level of anxiety and it often improves a person’s performance.However,when anxiety is severe it is detrimental to a person’s health and impairs normal functioning.Anxiety is a type of fear brought on by the thought of something rather than by experiancing an event.It is usually out of all proportion to the problem in mind and may be long lasting. Click here for more information! Bi-Polar Disorder Bi-polar disorder is the modern name for what was previously known as manic depression.Sufferers of this order experience very marked mood swings often alternating between mania and depression.In a manic phase the patient will be euphoric,have grandiose ideas and greatly inflated ideas about their abilities and talents. Click here for more information! Anti-Psychotic Medication The first anti-psychotic drug,chlorpromazine (Largactil), was discovered by accident in 1952. A group of drugs,the phenothiazines,were being investigated for their anti-histamine properties when an anaesthetist noticed they had a calming effect and made patients indifferent to what was going on around them. Subsequent testing on psychotic and manic patients showed that these drugs had a marked anti-psychotic effect. There are three main categories of anti-psychotic drugs-the first generation of drugs,the depot injections and the newer atypical drugs. Click here for more information!