Polar

Bipolar Risk Gene Identified

Bipolar disorder is otherwise called as maniac-depressive illness. The disease incidence is about one in fifty. But the sad state is that one in six people who suffer from the disorder are likely to commit suicide.// Hence extensive research was done on this disease to identify the gene and also develop various treatment modalities. Dr. Ian Blair conducted a study which revealed the b...

Survey shows how bipolar disorder affects the quality of life for patients

A global survey on bipolar disorder conducted by the World Federation for Mental Health reveals that patients of the // disease feel that their quality of life suffers because of their disease. Bipolar disorder is a psychotic disorder characterized by successive feelings of elation and depression. Also known as manic-depressive illness that affects 3 to 4 5 of the global adult populati...

Single drug for bipolar disorder

Researchers have pointed out that on a short term a single drug may be used to treat both the phases of bipolar disorder //. Bipolar disorder is a psychotic disorder characterized by successive feelings of elation and depression. Also known as manic-depressive illness that affects 3 to 4 5 of the global adult population. This is a chronic condition and most of the sufferers have multi...

Psychosocial Disability Varies In Accordance With Bipolar Symptom Changes

A decrease or increase in psychosocial disability in patients who suffer from bipolar disorder has been noticed with every decrease or increase in their depressive symptom severity//. This has been revealed in the December 2005 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Bipolar disorder is associated with suicidal behavior, and cycles of mania, abnormal elation, and depression are characterized...

Seroquel to Treat Depression In Case Of Bipolar Disorder

AstraZeneca the Head of the Anglo-Swedish Company has come out with the results of the drug Seroquel stating that it be used in the treatment of // both maniac behaviour and mental depression in people suffering with bipolar disorders. He has asked US to consider his drug as a sole treatment for maniac and depression symptoms related to bipolar disorder. AstraZeneca, the dr...

Researchers Identify Gene Connected To Bipolar Disorder

Australian researchers are reported to have identified a gene which gives rise to bipolar disorder in human beings. Other teams have previously// claimed to have found bipolar susceptibility genes, but this is the first time that the evidence has been close to conclusive, according to the researchers. The work might also explain how lithium, which has been prescribed for bipolar suff...

Mood Stabilizing drugs for Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder mostly develops during young adulthood and scientists have found that treating these patients with mood-altering drugs helps them to relieve of their mood // fluctuations and lead a normal life which helps them to overcome the Manic depressive illness. Researcher Hilary Blumberg and colleagues from Yale’s Mood Disorder Research Program, Department of Psychiatry as rep...

Bipolar Disorder Not Being Accurately Diagnosed By Doctors In UK

The British government's drug watchdog has warned yesterday that the doctors are failing to recognise manic depression, which is also known// as bipolar disorder in spite of it being one of the most common mental illness. It has been reported that patients are waiting on an average for eight years to be accurately diagnosed. It has been explained that if untreated, they suffer from...

Promising Care Model For Bipolar Disorder

A psychiatrist with the Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center and Brown Medical School has found that a new care model for treating bipolar disorder in the elderly// was successful in reducing the number of maniac episodes suffered by them. In a randomized, controlled trial, the researchers proved that the new treatment model did not add to the costs of treating people with bipolar disorder,...

Research on Bipolar Disorder Launched

Bipolar disorder is a mental disorder known to have a genetic predisposition. //This study is lead by James Watson, who was a codiscoverer of DNA double helix. Collaborated Research is being launched by Researchers fom The Zucker Hillside Hospital campus of The Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to find out the underpinings of bipolar disorder.<b...

Is Extreme Irritability - a Childhood Bipolar Disorder?

A new study done by researchers from National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) helps in improving the diagnosis and treatment of two debilitating //childhood mental disorders, pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) and severe mood dysregulation (SMD). When the brain's electrical signals were measured during mildly frustrating situations, researchers found a very different pattern in children...

Novel Markers for the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Brain holds clue to understand, diagnose and treat bipolar disorder,according to findings being presented today at the Seventh International Conference on Bipolar Disorder.It has helped to identify novel pathways and markers for diagnosis and treatment of the disease. The first study, presented by Husseini K. Manji, M.D., chief of the Laboratory of Molecular Pathophysiology at the N...

Antidepressant Medication Has No Effect on Bipolar Patients

Antidepressant medication has no additional effect when given to depressed people with bipolar disorder who are already taking a mood stabilizer//, according to a recent study. The results are part of the large-scale, multi-site Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), a $26.8 million clinical trial funded by the National Institutes of Health's National...

Intensive Psychotherapy Effective in Treating Bipolar Disorder

Patients taking medications to treat bipolar disorder are more likely to get well faster by intensive psychotherapy, according to results from the //Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD). This program was funded by the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The results are published in the April 2007 issue o...

Lithium Increases Gray Matter in Bipolar Brains

Researchers have shown that lithium, the standard treatment for bipolar disorder, increases the amount// of gray matter in the brains of patients with the illness. The research is featured in the July issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry and is currently available online. Carrie Bearden, a clinical neuropsychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry at UCLA, a...

Diagnosing Bipolar Symptoms in Children is Difficult

At least one-third of the time, the symptoms of bipolar disorder first appear in childhood or adolescence. However, in children, it can be difficult //to distinguish bipolar symptoms from those of other disorders, notes the May 2007 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. Children, especially young children, usually do not show the adult cycle of distinct mood episodes of mania and...

World Environment Day (International Polar Year)

- (Genesis 8:22, The Bible ). Our environment has been under threat for quite sometime now. Needless to say, we, the people, of this planet earth, are to be blamed. Global warming is threatening the Earth's endurance and our very exis...

More Than Four Percent of US Adults Have Some Form of Bipolar Disorder

Approximately 4.4 percent of U.S. adults may have some form of bipolar disorder during some point in their lifetime, including about 2.4 percent with a "sub-threshold" condition, according to an article in the issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. Individuals with bipolar disorder tend to fluctuate between periods of maniaan inappropriately elevated mood, characterized by impuls...

Bipolar Spectrum Disorder may Be Under-recognized for Spectrum Disorder: Study

A new study supports earlier estimates of the prevalence of bipolar disorder in the U.S. population, and suggests the illness may be more accurately characterized as a spectrum disorder. It also finds that many people with the illness are not receiving appropriate treatment. The study, published in the issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, analyzed data from the National Comorbidity Survey Re...