It refers to a group of unknown psychiatric disorders, characterized by intense and prolonged mood shifts and often accompanied with mental and behavioral changes. Most sufferers are prone to recurrent mood disorders and get back to normal intermittently, generally without mental defects and personality changes after cured. It ranges from mild psychotic behavior to psychosis, but in a narrow sense referring typically to bipolar disorder or Manic Depression.

The incidence of mood swings is much lower than that of schizoaffective disorder, 3.6-25% reported in Europe and America and 0.6% in China. Patients initially developing this disease are mostly between 16 to 30 years old, rarely seen before 15 and after 50 years old. Manic episode is generally earlier than depressive phases, so does female than male with a prevalence rate of 1:2 to 1:3.2.

WHAT IS A MOOD STABILIZER? 
It is almost equal to anticonvulsants because most mood-stabilizing drugs are purely antimanic agents, which are mainly for treating mania. From this perspective, it is quite different from antidepressants, which is also called mood enhancers, elevators, or  boosters in treating depression. By the way, it is different from antipsychotics too.

It has to achieve the following jobs:
-- Treat effectively or prevent manic symptoms;
-- Won't aggravate the depressive symptoms, sometimes improving or preventing depressive symptoms;
-- Stabilize moodswings, suppressing manic phases but not inducing depression and curing depressive episode while not causing Mania;
-- During treatment result in no tricky and complicated state, like mixed episodes of mania and Depression, mixed multiple mental diseases, and rapid mood cycling and shifting;
-- Won't increase or reduce suicide risk.

Clinically common mood stabilizers list is as follows:
Lithium, Lamotrigine (Lamictal), Carbamazepine (Tegretol), Oxcarbazepine (Trileptal), Valproic acid (Depakene), Riluzole, Gabapentin (Neurontin), and Topiramate (Topamax), etc.