Bipolar disorder treatment deals with two contradictory episodes and the signs and symptoms are very complex. Therefore, medications for bipolar disorder treatment fall into different categories. Generally speaking, there are four kinds of medications: mood stabilizers, antidepressants, antipsychotics and sedatives.

Mood stabilizers help prevent manic episode and alleviate the symptoms associated with mood swings. Later, it is also used during the depressive episode. Major medications are Lithium, CA Channel Blockers and Anticonvulsants

Antidepressants are often prescript for depressive episode to make the patients cheer up. The mainly types of this kind are monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs), serotonin-specific reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs)

When bipolar disorder patients have extreme mood swings or serious manic symptoms, Antipsychotics are then prescribed.  Prescript Antipsychotics are often Abilify, Mellaril, Clozaril, Prolixin, Etrafon, Fluanxol, Seroquel, Geodon, Haldol, Thorazine, Invega and Zyprexa.

Sedatives aim at alleviating manic episodes, and helping regulate sleep, alleviate anxiety. The sedatives include tranquilizers, hypnotics, benzodiazepines, and anti-anxiety medications they include (anxiolytics). Benzodiazepines, Rozerem and Lunesta are of this type.

To optimize bipolar disorder treatment, more often than not, medication treatment is a combination of these four types of medication.