In a small study involving just 50 patients, roughly half of the men and women who took tamoxifen for three weeks experienced a major decrease on their mania compared to people taking a placebo, the study found.
About a quarter of the tamoxifen-treated patients and none of the placebo-treated patients achieved remissions. However, scientists are still evaluating the drug to make it a mainstay of treatment for bipolar disorder.
Scientists are still working on to find if the use of Tamoxifen is associated with side effects. The drug has been used for more than two decades to treat breast cancer. It works by interfering with the activity of the hormone estrogen, which fuels breast cancer growth.
But it also inhibits a group of enzymes known as protein kinase C, and it was this action that first intrigued investigators studying bipolar disorder. Tamoxifen helps suppress breast cancer by interfering with the action of the female hormone estrogen in the body.
The findings, by researchers at Dokuz Eylül University Medical School in Izmir, Turkey, are published in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.
About 6 million adults in the U.S. have bipolar disorder, a condition characterized by dramatic mood shifts from manic 'highs' to depressed 'lows.' Manic episodes can last from at least one week to months, and symptoms can include extreme restlessness, sleeplessness, irritability, and distractibility.
