Guidelines for treatment of bipolar disorder.

Medication guidelines are being incorporated into psychiatric care, and may serve multiple functions, including ensuring consistent quality care, minimizing or managing costs, integration of new treatments, and providing clinicians with information necessary to make informed clinical decisions. Methods of guideline development and the published guidelines for the medication treatment of bipolar disorder are briefly reviewed. Despite limited research on the clinical efficacy of using guidelines, they serve other useful functions such as prioritizing multiple treatment options and providing a framework for treatment. The future role of treatment algorithms in psychiatric practice will be determined, in part, by results of studies evaluating the clinical impact of their use.