Bipolar Disorder

People with depression exhibit an unexpected increase in volume on the left side of the hypothalamus, the brain region responsible for physical wellbeing.

Meeting with a peer support worker to complete a personal recovery workbook reduced readmissions over a year for patients with mental health challenges.

People living with mental illness face great adversity. One of their greatest challenges is the seemingly intractable problem of stigma.

Response to ketamine treatment in mood disorders may be better predicted based on baseline cognitive impairment.

The agency warns that the seizure and bipolar disorder medication can cause hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis, a rare but very serious immune system reaction.

Women with PCOS face increased risk of psychiatric morbidity and their children are more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD or autism.

Two phase 3 clinical trials begin enrollment for treatment of manic episodes associated with bipolar I disorder.

Positive results showed 6 weeks of treatment associated with significant improvement of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents.

Maternal use of lithium in the first trimester raises risk of cardiac defects to the fetus.

Bipolar disorder patients with Alzheimer's have a 2.3-fold increased chance of having been diagnosed with HCV.

Study finds associations between psychiatric length of stay and readmission.

Patients with colorectal cancer are at a higher risk for mood disorders.

Adults diagnosed with bipolar disorder are much more likely than the general population to have suffered emotional, physical, or sexual abuse as children.

The stem cells can be turned into brain cells in laboratories, which can give scientists a better understanding of the genes and characteristics of brain cells that bipolar disorder patients have.

Research suggests that lipid screening appears to remain particularly underutilized in adults taking antipsychotic medications, despite improvements in recent years in the use of diabetes screening in this patient population.

Significant racial/ethnic differences appear to exist in the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric conditions across 11 private, not-for-profit United States healthcare systems.

Research suggests that lipid screening appears to remain particularly underutilized in adults taking antipsychotic medications, despite improvements in recent years in the use of diabetes screening in this patient population.

Men diagnosed with multiple sclerosis often have higher blood pressure than women, in addition to higher levels of diabetes, epilepsy, depression, and anxiety.

Compulsive behavior – to gamble, binge eat, shop, and have sex – is linked to the antipsychotic drug aripiprazole.

What do President Jimmy Carter and Kim Kardashian have in common? Well, probably nothing besides the fact that people’s perspectives on their health conditions were both examined in a recent study.

Study results show that more than a dozen traits related to sleep, wake, and activity cycles associated with severe bipolar disorder appear to be inherited.

A recent study compared borderline personality disorder and bipolar disorder in order to evaluate and compare the levels of psychosocial morbidity in patients with these disorders.

A study in BMC Psychiatry suggests that using both the Suicide Intent Scale (SIS) and the Karolinska Interpersonal Violence Scale (KIVS) combined may be better for predicting completed suicide than using them separately. According to the study, "The nonsignificant correlation between the scales indicates that they measure different components of suicide risk."

Mobile phone applications offer a significant opportunity to improve treatment for bipolar disorder, but they're not ready for prime time yet. In fact, a study in the Journal of Internet Medical Research looked at the most recent apps and found significant gaps that need to be addressed, in terms of agreement with medical guidelines, comprehensive information, and privacy matters.

A study in Translational Psychiatry has identified three potential genes that could prove to be responsible for disturbances in mitochondrial function and DNA repair mechanisms in bipolar disorder. The genes in question – POLG, OGG1, and NDUFV2 – may open new targets for examination. The study authors themselves consider the results to be "somewhat promising."

Better understanding the relationship between bipolar disorder (BD) and circadian cycles can help establish new treatment protocols and treatment modalities, according to a review in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is challenging to diagnose and treat. As yet, there are no drugs currently licensed for BPD treatment. In fact, guidance from England's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence recommends that pharmacologic therapy not be used for patients with BPD at all. This is potentially troubling, because those patients typically experience rapid and extreme changes in mood, poor social functioning and have high rates of suicidal behavior.

Although a seemingly invisible condition, fibromyalgia (FM) may have an important connection with mental health symptoms.

A widely accessible medication commonly used to treat psychiatric disorders may also inhibit the damaging effects of osteoarthritis.

Research from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System published online in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry suggests that patients with post-traumatic stress disorder appear to be at risk for accelerated aging, or premature senescence.