Researchers suggest that adults with bipolar spectrum disorder often present with co-morbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. (Source: MedWire News - Psychiatry)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

This week, Dr. Charles Raison offers part two of his answer to the viewer question: Can a 9- or 10-year-old be bipolar? (Source: CNN.com - Health)

A one-page, 27-item questionnaire that is available free online is a valid and effective tool to help primary care doctors screen patients for four common psychiatric illnesses, a study led by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill researchers concludes. Results of the My Mood Monitor (M-3) checklist study are published in the March/April 2010 issue of Annals of Family Medicine... (Source: Bipolar News From Medical News Today)

Previous observations of distorted self-representation in clinical samples of patients with bipolar disorder may represent a scar of previous depressive or manic episodes rather than act as a predisposing factor, say UK researchers who found no strong evidence of increased distorted self-representation in a sample of BD individuals. (Source: MedWire News - Psychiatry)

Patients with bipolar disorder are at increased risk for behavioral addictions, researchers have found. (Source: MedWire News - Bipolar Disorder)

Purpose: Quantitative analysis of anxiety level in patient groups with generalized and focal, temporal or extratemporal epilepsy. Material and method: Ninety patients (30 with generalized epilepsy, 30 with temporal and 30 with extratemporal epilepsy), and age-matched healthy control subjects were investigated. Anxiety level in all subjects was assessed with Beck Anxiety Inventory. Sheehan Disability Scale was used to determine the functional disability level. Patients with comorbid major depression, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, progressive neurological disease, alcoholism, and epilepsy associated with mental retardation were excluded. (Source: Clinical Neurophysiology)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

John Patrick Bedell, who began shooting at Pentagon guards on Thursday and was killed by return fire, had bipolar disorder and had been in and out of treatment for years, according to his family. His mother had notified police in January that her son was mentally ill and had purchased a gun. Some of the news reports I found were careful to point out that people with bipolar disorder are no more likely than others to commit violent crimes, which is a good thing. Many others focus on Bedell's anti-government "rantings" on the internet, as well as the way conservatives and liberals are pointing fingers at each other over the incident. On the other hand, there are editorials like the Kansas City Star's Will 2010 Be Year of the 'Nut Job'?. This was published the day after the shootings, befor...

Conclusion: The ORSM is a useful instrument to help non-professionals who are in regular contact with the patient diagnosed a manic/mixed episode. It thus complements existing rating scales for mania, which are either designed for professionals or are self-rating instruments. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Conclusions: Being suicidal may limit response to treatment in depressed major affective disorder patients, independent of diagnosis or overall symptomatic severity. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Abstract: Background: Despite the high rates of cardiovascular risk factors among people with bipolar disorder, little is known about the incidence of cardiovascular morbidity in this population.Methods: Based upon Ontario, Canada hospital discharge records from April 1, 2002 to March 31, 2006, we constructed a population-based cohort study to assess whether individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder (n=5999) would have a significantly greater risk of subsequent readmission with a cardiovascular condition in comparison to a matched population-proxy group of individuals receiving an appendicitis primary diagnosis. A Cox regression procedure was used to estimate group differences in time-to-readmission with a cardiovascular-related diagnosis. Patients were followed for a period up to 4 yea...

Abstract: Background: Asenapine is indicated in adults for acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder with or without psychotic features. This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial assessed the efficacy, safety, and tolerability of asenapine in bipolar I disorder.Methods: Adults experiencing manic or mixed episodes were randomized to 3weeks of flexible-dose treatment with sublingual asenapine (day 1: 10mg BID, 5 or 10mg BID thereafter; n=185), placebo (n=98), or oral olanzapine (day 1: 15mg QD, 5–20mg QD thereafter; n=205). Primary efficacy, YMRS total score change from baseline to day 21, was assessed using ANCOVA with last observation carried forward.Results: Mean daily doses were 18.4mg asenapine and 15.9mg olanzapine. Least squares mean...MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

Abstract: Background: Dysphoric mania is a common and often difficult to treat subset of bipolar mania that is associated with significant depressive symptoms.Objective: This post hoc analysis was designed to evaluate the efficacy of ziprasidone in the treatment of depressive and other symptoms in a cohort of patients with dysphoric mania.Methods: Pooled data were examined from two similarly designed, 3-week placebo-controlled trials in acute bipolar mania. Patients scoring ≥2 on at least two items of the extracted Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) met criteria for dysphoric mania and were included in the post hoc analysis. Changes from baseline in symptom scores were evaluated by a mixed-model analysis of covariance.Results: 179 patients with dysphoric mania were included in ...

Conclusion: Serious suicide attempt and a familial history of completed suicide in patients with major depression seem to be a clinical marker of bipolarity. Facing suicide attempters with recurrent depression, clinician should be awareness to these characteristics to detect BPD. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Conclusions: Valproate is effective for the reduction of depressive symptoms of acute bipolar depression, and was well tolerated. (Source: Journal of Affective Disorders)

Abstract: Migraine and Bipolar Disorder (BPAD) are clinically heterogeneous disorders of the brain with a significant, but complex, genetic component. Epidemiological and clinical studies have demonstrated a high degree of co-morbidity between migraine and BPAD. Several genome-wide linkage studies in BPAD and migraine have shown overlapping regions of linkage on chromosomes, and two functionally similar voltage-dependent calcium channels CACNA1A and CACNA1C have been identified in familial hemiplegic migraine and recently implicated in two whole genome BPAD association studies, respectively. We hypothesized that using migraine co-morbidity to look at subsets of BPAD families in a genetic linkage analysis would prove useful in identifying genetic susceptibility regions in both of these diso...

Future Neurology , March 2010, Vol. 5, No. 2, Pages 317-323. (Source: Future Neurology)MedWorm Message: Get the very latest Swine Flu news via the MedWorm Swine Flu RSS news feed - updated hourly from thousands of authoritative health and news sources.

No commodity can be at the center of a financial mania without a lot of money being pumped into it. And in the technology and telecom bubbles, much of that cash came from venture capitalists. (Source: bizjournals.com Health Care:Health Insurance headlines)

(Source: Bipolar Disorders)

If you haven't, you should. Everyone who experiences mania and depression will benefit from reading this book. Every doctor, judge, police officer and criminal or family attorney should be required to read it. And every family member and friend of someone diagnosed with manic depression, especially bipolar I and II disorders, or of someone exhibiting the symptoms, will gain from reading Kay Redfield Jamison's courageous autobiography. Attorney and author Melody Moezzi, on National Public Radio's You Must Read This, said "An Unquiet Mind is, without a doubt, the most brilliant and brutally honest book I've ever read about bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic-depression). I've read nothing else that has better captured the torment and elation of this strange illness, nor have I ever fe...

In conclusion, valproate can induce delirium at therapeutic blood levels in some patients via various mechanisms and this side effect has to be considered during valproate use. PMID: 20204907 [PubMed - in process] (Source: Turkish Journal of Psychiatry)