| Summary: | This guideline, which updates the 2006 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline (NCCMH, 2006; NICE, 2006), has been developed to advise on the assessment and management of bipolar disorder in adults, children (aged under 13 years) and young people (aged 13 to 18 years) in primary and secondary care. It applies to people with bipolar I, bipolar II, mixed affective and rapid cycling disorders. Non-bipolar affective disorders are not covered because these are addressed by other guidelines. The guideline recommendations have been developed by a multidisciplinary team of healthcare professionals, people with bipolar disorder and guideline methodologists after careful consideration of the best available evidence. It is intended that the guideline will be useful to clinicians and service commissioners in providing and planning high-quality care for people with bipolar disorder (see Appendix 1 for more details on the scope of the guideline). Although the evidence base is rapidly expanding, there are a number of major gaps. The guideline makes a number of research recommendations specifically to address gaps in the evidence base. In the meantime, it is hoped that the guideline will assist clinicians, and people with bipolar disorder and their carers by identifying the merits of particular treatment approaches where the evidence from research and clinical experience exists
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