Everyday we learn a little bit more about mental disorders and how darned complex they really are. While imagine studies that use tools such as fMRI are interesting, it’s just as interesting to see our knowledge expand in other ways too. Far from being some simple brain disorder, we see that mental disorders, even those that react positively to certain medications, still can be affected through a variety of non-medication treatments.
Yesterday, we published a news article about a study about how regular routines and sleep patterns positively affects the treatment of people with bipolar disorder.
The study found that patients who participated in interpersonal and social rhythm therapy in the earlier phases of the trial were able to go longer without a new episode of mania or depression than those who received clinical management.
Now, keep in mind, both experimental groups in this study were receiving medication for the bipolar disorder. If medication were sufficient to treat bipolar, virtually nobody should be relapsing. As it is, medication alone is rarely sufficient for most people.
This study showed that this other stuff, the stuff that is so often ignored when being treated by a primary care or family physician, can also be very important to obtaining and then maintaining treatment gains.
The researchers found that simply by helping people maintain a consistent sleep schedule and wake time helped balance the circadian system, which in turn helped people avoid nighttime sleeplessness or daytime exhaustion. Such exhaustion or sleeplessness can increase the risk of new episodes of mania or depression.
I find this stuff fascinating because of its impact on client outcomes, and how easy it is to give people these skills through a few sessions of therapy.
Read the article: Regular Routines, Sleep Helps Improve Bipolar
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Links to This Article
Regular Sleep Helps Improve Bipolar | time management (12/11/2007)
From Psych Central's World of Psychology:
Essentials of Sleep - World of Psychology (12/11/2007)
One Comment to
“Regular Sleep Helps Improve Bipolar”
I used to think that with my bipolar that if I wasn’t on medication that it would do me no good to do anything else until I got on medication and didn’t change my sleeping patterns or eating and I still felt as though the medications were not doing any good. I was at a loss I hated feeling the way I did and I had tried a couple different types of meds and still nothing.
Finally a friend of mine suggested that I look at insightpros.com and maybe I could find some different answers well they were right not only did they have different answers but they questioned my eating and sleeping patterns and suggested that I change them to a healthier life style and you know I do not seem to be having as many lows as I used to. There is a lot to do with our downs when we are not getting enough sleep. I now go to bed early turn my head off and rest and I wake up ready for what today has for me not what my disease has for me.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 11 Dec 2007
