This survey examines the curative and prophylactic efficacy of carbamazepine in the treatment of affective disorders. Nearly 70% of the manic patients treated with carbamazepine shows a favourable response. Besides, carbamazepine has anti-depressive and prophylactic activity in about 50%, respectively 50-80% of the investigated patients.

Patients who are unresponsive to lithium and/or rapid cyclers are good candidates for a trial with carbamazepine. Apart from uncomfortable side effects which may sometimes appear at the beginning of treatment, carbamazepine is relatively well tolerated.

The low teratogenicity of carbamazepine is an advantage over lithium in pregnant women. In this paper a number of hypotheses are formulated concerning the mechanism of action of carbamazepine.