Early medication??

I have a bipolar disease, as did my father, my aunt, and their cousin who comitted suicide in th 1940´es. I´m 46, and was diagnosed 3,5 years ago. My oldest daughter, soon 21, is not well. I asked 2008 (when only I knew that she had it too) if early treatment could make her less likely to develop severe disease, or prevent her from loosing braincells, or most of all to make her life a little bit easier than it would be without medication, but the answers was "wait and see". Well, now she is hypomaniac with a lot of anxiety. She saw a doctor and has Lamotrigin, zyprexa and sleepingpills since a couple of months.
My question is still the same;
Does early treatment affect her future? the severety of her bipolarity? the loss of braincells?
What medicins are capable of these effects?
I´m a doctor myself, but this is not my professional field, just the most important part of my life, my daughter, and that is why I need an answer to theese questions. I am of course aware of that it isn´t possible to make a individual prediction, I just want to know what science says.

[ILADVOCATE]

  If a person needs treatment generally their responsiveness to it and their outlook in general is better if they start it when they need it but you could discuss that with her psychiatrist. Whether or not starting treatment early helps brain functioning on the level you discuss is still in clinical research as bipolar is known to cause changes in brain functioning but not loss of brain cells. However people who need treatment and start it at the time they acquire a psychiatric disability generally do better than those who don't but the specifics are still being clinically understood.