Electronic diary for bipolar patients.

Long-term monitoring methods providing an overview of the course of bipolar disorder of individual patients are a clinical necessity at least for patients who require a combination therapy with drugs that have only proven their efficacy for monotherapy. The Life Chart Method (LCM) of the NIMH is an adequate method for this purpose. Unfortunately, due to data entry and management requirements, it is too expensive for everyday clinical use. The 'electronic diary for patients with bipolar disorder' is meant to provide a method to minimize the effort for detailed long-term monitoring of patients with bipolar affective disorder and thus make it available for the everyday clinical use for every bipolar patient. Copyright 2003 S. Karger AG, Basel