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Many patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder respond incompletely or unsatisfactorily to available treatments. Defining refractoriness in bipolar disorder is a complex issue and should concern and include either every phase and pole or the disorder as a whole. There are only limited and sometimes confusing data on the treatment of refractory bipolar patients. The objective of this paper was to review the evidence for treatment options in treatment resistant patients on depressive, manic attack and maintanence phase as found in randomized controlled trials and with special attention to the definition and assessment of treatment resistance.