Efficacy and safety of cariprazine in the treatment of bipolar disorder.

Introduction: Cariprazine, a D3-preferring, dopamine D2/D3 partial agonist, has efficacy in treating both acute phases of bipolar I disorder (BD-I). It has been approved by the FDA for treatment of acute manic, mixed and depressive episodes associated with BD-I.Areas covered: In this review, the authors discuss the unique pharmacological properties and clinical efficacy profile of cariprazine, and their relevance in the context of routine clinical decision-making for BD-I. For the purpose of this review, the authors searched for clinical trials in BD published in the PubMed, Web of Science, Embase and PsychInfo databases as well as for studies registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov database.Expert opinion: Based on evidence from RCTs in manic and mixed episodes, cariprazine in a dose-range of 3-12 mg is effective for treating acute mania and mixed states associated with BD-I. Importantly, evidence from placebo-controlled trials in bipolar depression suggests that cariprazine is also effective as a monotherapy in treating acute bipolar depression in doses of 1.5-3 mg/day. It is overall well tolerated; however, clinicians need to monitor patients for akathisia.