Between 1996 and 2006 the average number of prescriptions continued to increase, 40 percent over that decade. The number of patients on three or more psychotropic medications more than doubled. All of this happened without clinical research to show that combining three or more medications was effective.

When medications are added to other medications, it can be hard to know which effects are due to which medication. If we replace one of the medications, will all the cards fall? Is this completely safe in the long term? We do know that the practice, known within the medical community as polypharmacy and sometimes defended in literature as a "necessary evil," costs money and increases potential for drug interactions and side effects. As Weinstock said in the university's press release, "By definition that’s not evidence-based treatment."

Evidence-based treatment is the buzzword movement aimed at getting doctors to only do things that are supported by sound research.

Medication for bipolar disorder can work, can be wonderful. If studies find prescribing four or five or seven medications is sometimes prudent and necessary, then that will be that. It's not ideal to ask anyone to remember to take that many pills, especially in cases of mental health that may involve flights of mania wherein a person feels invincible and is buying yachts on credit, alternating with periods of major depression wherein getting to a pharmacy to fill and orchestrate a half dozen prescriptions can be an insurmountable proposition. Not to mention the psychology of it. Look how many pills you require. But at least as patients and doctors we'd have the reassurance that it's proven to work.

Given the scale and nature of the disorder, that kind of science should be a priority. “Without many treatment alternatives," Weinstock said, "this is where we are as a field.”