The Role of Serotonin Transporter Protein Gene in Antidepressant-Induced Mania in Bipolar Disorder

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Abstract
THE INDUCTION of mania in patients treated with antidepressants is a complex and not rare phenomenon that occurs with different frequencies in patients with bipolar disorder (BP), unipolar disorder (UP), and obsessive-compulsive disorder.%1-8 In patients with mood disorder, the frequency of antidepressant-induced mania has been estimated to be 9.5% to 33%, varying across studies that included different diagnoses (ie, UP and BP) and different antidepressant treatments.%9-11 More recently, it has become clearer that the phenomenon of antidepressant-induced mania was strictly related to a diagnosis of BP, and that, in these patients, the switch rate during antidepressant treatment was definitively higher than that in patients with UP.%12 Therefore, during the 1990s, researchers have primarily focused on the occurrence of the phenomenon in BP.