Bipolar News ( Demi Lovato Discusses Bipolar Diagnosis)

Bipolar News

Demi Lovato 20/20 discussing her problems and her discovery of Bipolar Disorder.

Demi Lovato - 20/20 Interview [Extras] 

The lasest news on Bipolar Disorder (US News)

Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones recently sought treatment for bipolar II disorder, a condition characterized by prolonged "low" periods, her rep confirmed Wednesday. Zeta-Jones, who checked into a mental facility in Connecticut, has supported her husband Michael Douglas through his battle with throat cancer over the past year—and experts say such stress can trigger the condition. Bipolar disorder, which affects 2 to 3 percent of the United States population, is defined by cycles of severe depression and manic episodes. People with bipolar II, meanwhile, swing from major depression to milder, briefer manic states, without experiencing full-blown manic episodes. Treatment typically involves medication and psychotherapy, which can dampen mood swings and related symptoms and can reduce episode severity and frequency. "One of the things people often overlook because manias and hypomanias are splashy, is that most patients with bipolar disorder spend their lives depressed," Martin Evers, an outpatient psychiatrist and associate director of behavioral health at Northern West Chester Hospital in New York, told Time. "The tragedy of the disorder is the depression. A lot of days of your life are lost."

Bipolar Tests As with other psychiatric disorders, bipolar disorder cannot be identified physiologically (for example, with a blood test or an X-ray). Therefore, the diagnosis is made based on symptoms, course of the illness, and family history, when available. A thorough medical evaluation should always be included in the workup to rule out any other medical problems. Psychiatric measures have been developed that may be used to screen for symptoms of a bipolar disorder, such as the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale or Mood Disorder Questionnaire.

3-ways-to-be-wise-about-psychiatric-drugs-for-kids

When a medication is recommended for your child, do your own research. The fastest way to get up to Speed: Log on to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database of medical journal articles, and search for the name of the drug, along with "children" and "review". Review studies evaluate the work of dozens of scientists on a given topic and summarize the current practices and controversies. Also consider taking a look at the practice parameters from the AACAP, which are advice to doctors developed by a committee of M.D.s. They tend to be conservative. (Here's the 2007 practice parameter on treating bipolar disorder.)

It's OK to tell the doctor you want to go home and think about it. All drugs come with side effects and risks, and because many drugs have been tested only briefly in children, clear data on the risks and benefits isn't always available. Now is the time to think about yor child and weigh his or her needs against the best evidence available as to risks and benefits of the medication.

• Think of the medication as a trial purchase, not a lifetime commitment. Before starting your child on a new drug, set a future appointment when you'll meet with the doctor and decide if it's working. You know your child better than anyone, and you'll know if it's producing clear benefits in mood or behavior.

Bipolar Teens at Greater Risk of Substance Abuse

THURSDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) -- Teens with bipolar disorder are at greater risk of smoking and substance abuse, says a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) study that supports previous research.
"This work confirms that bipolar disorder in adolescents is a huge risk factor for smoking and substance abuse, as big a risk factor as juvenile delinquency," study leader Dr. Timothy Wilens, director of substance abuse services in MGH Pediatric Psychopharmacology, said in a prepared statement.
"It indicates both that young people with BPD (bipolar disorder) need to carefully be screened for smoking and for substance use and abuse and that adolescents known to abuse drugs and alcohol -- especially those who binge use -- should also be assessed for BPD," said Wilens, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
He and his colleagues analyzed data on 105 teens with bipolar disorder who were enrolled in the study at an average age of 14 and followed into adulthood. The study also included a control group of 98 teens with no mood disorders.
Incidence of alcohol abuse or dependence, drug abuse or dependence, and smoking was significantly higher in the bipolar disorder group than in the control group. Overall, the rate of substance abuse was 34 percent in the bipolar disorder group compared to 4 percent in the control group.
The study also found that young people whose bipolar symptoms began in adolescence were more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol than those who started having bipolar symptoms in Childhood.
"It could be that the onset of mood dysregulation in adolescence puts kids at even higher risk for poor judgment and self-medication of their symptoms," Wilens said. "It also could be that some genetic switch activated in adolescence turns on both BPD and substance abuse in these youngsters. That's something that we are currently investigating in genetic and neuro-imaging studies of this group."
Determining whether bipolar disorder begins before the start of substance abuse could prove of major importance.
"If BPD usually precedes substance abuse, there may be intervention points where we could reduce its influence on drug and alcohol abuse. Aggressive treatment of BPD could cut the risk of substance abuse, just as we have shown it does in ADHD," Wilens said.
The study was published in the June issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Older Fathers and Bipolar Offspring

Older men, particularly those over 55, are more likely to father children who develop bipolar disorder, according to a new Swedish study. The Associated Press Reports that the study published in September's Archives of General Psychiatry finds the heightened risk of fathering bipolar offspring begins at a paternal age of about age 40. Among men 55 and older, the risk of having a child who develops bipolar disorder is 37 percent higher than among men in their 20s. Still, the study authors say, the absolute risk isn't high enough to say that older men shouldn't become fathers. Previous studies have connected advanced paternal age to other mental disorders, namely schizophrenia and autism.

Mental Illnesses Too Complex to Predict With Gene Tests, Researchers Say
A genetic test to predict schizophrenia or bipolar disorder is far off, say researchers who have just found that 30,000 gene variations are involved in the development of those psychiatric disorders, Reuters reports. Intriguingly, the research, published in the journal Nature , suggests that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia have common genetic causes. "If some of the same genetic risks underlie schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, perhaps these disorders originate from some common vulnerability in brain development," one expert from the National Institute of Mental Health said in a BBC News report.

The researchers also found that schizophrenia patients have genetic variations on a section of chromosome 6 that has genes associated with immunity, which suggests that immune function may play a role in schizophrenia.  Earlier research suggests a link between schizophrenia and autism, U.S. News's Nancy Shute reported.