bipolar disorder
How Diet May Affect Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar Disorder changes a person’s mood from one extreme to another, sometimes within a matter of minutes. Moods may quickly swing from depression to elation. Doctors prescribe medications to help ease the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder, but researchers have also found that certain foods can both help and hinder the effects of the mood disorder. Researchers now recommend that any treatment for Bipolar Disorder should also include nutritional counseling.
How Does Bipolar Disorder Affect a Family?
Bipolar disorder is characterized by the affected person’s swinging in mood from manic (depressed) to mania (hyper animated). Some persons with bipolar disorder experience mild to moderate mood swings and symptoms while others with the disorder experience more severe symptoms.
Bipolar Disorder and Self-Injury
Bipolar I, also known as manic depressive disorder, is a mental illness. In order to be diagnosed with bipolar, a person must experience a manic episode. Mania is characterized by abnormally high or "up" feelings accompanied by abnormal behavior. The person with bipolar disorder will often cycle between episodes of mania and depression, hence the name manic depression. Sometimes the ‘down’ episodes are characterized by feelings so low that the person may seek to cause self-injury.
Bipolar disorder afflicts approximately 2.5 million people, most of whom are still quite young (in their teens and 20s) when they experience the onset of symptoms. Only rarely is someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder in later adulthood (after 50). For the person living with the disorder, episodes of mania and depression may be separated by long periods when they feel steady and "normal."
In a manic stage, or period of abnormally elevated mood, an individual might exhibit the following behaviors:
Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones Gives Hope by Discussing Bipolar Disorder
Academy award-winning actress, wife, mother – and person with bipolar disorder. The honesty and openness with which Catherine Zeta-Jones has discussed her recent diagnosis of bipolar disorder is helping reduce negative stereotypes about the disease, which is believed to affect up to three percent of people in the U.S.
Learn more about Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones Gives Hope by Discussing Bipolar Disorder
High Rates of Substance Abuse Among Veterans with Mental Health Disorders
Previous studies have found high rates of substance abuse among U.S. veterans, and a new study finds the same among U.S. veterans with mental health disorders. The study, led by Dr. Ismene Petrakis of the Yale University School of Medicine, could be helpful in understanding the needs of veterans of different eras, and in targeting treatment programs.
Learn more about High Rates of Substance Abuse Among Veterans with Mental Health Disorders
Hypomania and Alcohol Use
Individuals with clinically significant Mood Disorders such as Depressive Disorder and Bipolar Disorder have long been considered to be at risk for alcohol abuse and dependence. Mood fluctuations such as those found in Bipolar Disorder are tied to substance use in multiple ways. Some with these conditions report substance use to self-medicate negative symptoms. The effects of substance use to self-medicate, however, are unpredictable, varied and can result in worsened symptoms or a free-standing Substance Use Disorder. Additionally, the more ‘pleasant’ (Piper, 2010) symptoms of Mood Disorders such as Bipolar I and Bipolar II also seem to impact patterns of substance use.
Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder Common in Adults with Major Depression, but Go Unnoticed
Many adults with major depression disorder may also be suffering from significant symptoms of bipolar disorder. A new study sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found that almost 40% of adults with a history of major depressive disorder also experience subthreshold hypomania. Hypomania is a form of mania—a symptom of bipolar disorder. Without recognition of hypomania behavior, symptoms of bipolar disorder may go undiagnosed among a large proportion of individuals suffering from major depression.
Genes Examined in Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder can be a debilitating condition for those who suffer from its effects. As a result, scientists continue to examine this condition, its origin, treatment and even potential prevention.
According to a release out of Science Daily, the malfunctioning circadian clock genes could be responsible for bipolar disorder in children. According to researchers in BMC Psychiatry, four versions of the regulatory gene RORB were associated with pediatric bipolar disorder.
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