Word: bipolarity
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...last, perhaps hardest element of treatment is family therapy. Bipolar disorder, like schizophrenia, depression and certain anxiety conditions, is powerfully influenced by surroundings. When an identical twin suffers from bipolar, the other twin has only a 65% chance of developing it too. Conversely, adopted children with no genetic legacy for bipolar have a 2% chance of coming down with the condition if they are raised in a home with one nonbiological bipolar parent. Clearly, something is in play besides mere genes, and that something is environment. Raise a child in a steady and stable home, and you reduce the odds...
...most important thing parents and siblings can do is simply to serve as the eyes and ears of the bipolar child. A teen in a depression can't see the hope beyond the gloom. A child in a manic cycle can't see the quiet reality behind the giddiness. It's up to people whose compasses are more reliably functioning to step in and point the way. Says Dr. Gary Sachs, director of the Bipolar Treatment Center at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and principal investigator for the STEP-BD project: "Treatment is modeled on Homer's Odyssey. When Odysseus...
...future, kids should be getting yet more assistance as they sail. At the Stanley Research Center, in Massachusetts General Hospital, investigators are beginning a yearlong study of at least 10 bipolar drugs, comparing the merits of each and the ways they can best be combined. Others are looking at such unconventional treatments as omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil, which may inhibit the same brain receptors that lithium affects. Elsewhere, researchers are running brain scans to determine which lobes and regions are involved in bipolar disorder and how to target them more accurately with drugs. Investigators also hope...
Getting all this work done right--and getting the treatments to the kids who need it--is one of the newest and most challenging goals of the mental-health community. Doctors who recognize bipolar disorder and know how to handle it are in critically short supply. Growing up is hard enough for children who are bipolar. The last thing they need is a misdiagnosis and treatment for something they don't have. --Reported by Dan Cray and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles, Jeanne DeQuine/Miami, Melissa Sattley/Texas, Cristina Scalet/New York and Maggie Sieger/Chicago...
...more information, visit these websites: time.com/bipolar bpkids.org (Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation) and jbrf.org (Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation...