Letter to the Editor October 15, 2003

Divalproex Versus Olanzapine in Mania

Eduard Vieta, MD, PhD

J Clin Psychiatry 2003;64(10):1266-1267

Article Abstract

Because this piece does nothave an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentencesof the full text.

Sir: The article by Zajecka et al.1on the efficacy and safetyof divalproex sodium versus olanzapine in the treatment ofbipolar disorder is interesting, but unfortunately it does notseem to truly support the authors’ conclusions.The first problem is sample size. According to previous experience with divalproex2and olanzapine,3this study was notclearly powered to show superiority of either drug over theother and it is unclear whether this trial was designed to proveeither superiority or noninferiority.’ ‹’ ‹