The drug chlorpromazine has been around for a long time. It was one of the earliest medicines used to treat those with bipolar. It was created more than a half century ago in Paris, France. At the time, it was a tranquilizer used primarily to calm down clients that were undergoing the mania stage of the illness. And then, for a number of years, this continued to be the main treatment prescribed for those with bipolar disorder. As a matter of fact, a number of psychiatrist today use it to manage the varying manic symptoms of their patients.

But chlorpromazine was only the first of many new drugs to be developed to combat the disease. Shortly after it was discovered, another medicine was uncovered. It was called Lithium. And it held the promise of possibly being even more successful against bipolar disorder.

Like chlorpromazine, lithium has been around for a long time as well. First used nearly seventy years ago, it remains to be one of the most effective all around medication for dealing with the illness. And, yes, it is true that there are a few medications which are better at taking care of the depressive period of manic depression. And, there are other medications, which might be more effective at moderating the mania period. But, if they are searching for an all-in-one medication to handle both symptoms,one better than lithium still has not been found.

Many bipolar disorder support groups often are abuzz with info about new bipolar drugs being released to fight symptoms of manic depression. And taking this all into consideration, some drugs – a few – are actually better at moderating certain aspects of the illness. The problem is that most of these medicines also come with the possibility of more negative side effects. Because of this, you have to ask the question why the companies seem so invested in promoting these drugs.

If you follow the money, the answer is pretty apparent. Companies cannot patent lithium. What this means is, they have no monetary incentive to push these drugs to the market – no matter how effective they may be. Their primary motivation is to push the drugs that they do have patent protection for. These are the ones which they have a monopoly over and which they can set their own price for.

So what is the lesson here? Simple. New is not always better. Sometimes the tried and true is the best option.