Despite much research in recent years, including a study that establishes the heritability of bipolar disorder at 85% (confirming what families and clinicians have known for decades), the precise genetic basis of bipolar disorder remains elusive. Single-gene studies have identified promising candidates here and there, but genome-wide association studies have failed to produce replicable results. […]

Last week I welcomed readers to Spring and then it promptly snowed (just a little) up here in New England. True to April, however, it’s now raining and warmer, and this is one of those cloudy Fridays that seems like it just goes on and on forever.
10 Years Ago on Psych Central

Changes and Illusions
We all […]

Keeping Kids Healthy is an award winning, long running public television program about pediatrics and parenting. Their archives feature lots of half-hour productions about mental illnesses and behavioural issues in children. One, about bipolar disorder in children, is the second most viewed video in my Vodpod collection, with hundreds of views compared to dozens for […]

Facing Us is an online clubhouse created by the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA) that hosts some nice multimedia. Remember their video contest last fall? Winners are posted on the site now. First prize went to A piece of me… by S. Braun of New York City. With the soundtrack In the Backseat by […]

The first wave of companies is coming on the scene to peddle genetic tests that purport to help people see if they have genes associated with possible higher incidences of a particular disease or condition. Sound a little fishy? Well, given the complexity of genomics today, it is.
One of the first of these tests is […]

A new social networking site looks a lot like Myspace, but is specifically designed for people suffering from major medical problems. I found the site, patientslikeme.com, after reading an article critiquing the site, by New York Times writer, Thomas Goetz. Goetz writes about one man suffering from multiple sclerosis (MS) who used the […]

A new treatment for bipolar disorder (manic depression) might be a well-known generic breast cancer treatment — tamoxifen.

[P]ilot trials have suggested that tamoxifen may be effective in treating mania — an abnormally elevated mood that features impulsive behavior, higher energy and activity levels, and disconnected thoughts — in patients with bipolar disorder.
[…]
Patients in the tamoxifen […]

Margaret Trudeau, Canada’s lively and lovely former first lady turned bipolar advocate, talks about her recovery (récupération in French) process to stay balanced.
“You need to develop a sense of forgiveness,” she says. “Forgiving myself and forgiving others for abandoning me, for hurting me, for their lack of understanding. I have to ask for forgiveness, and […]

Fans of Kay Redfield Jamison rejoice: here’s the vintage half-hour video An Unquiet Mind: Personal Reflections on Manic-Depressive Illness. A captivating speaker, she’s authored many papers and books on the subjects of bipolar, manic depression and recurrent depression. She is Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, and is bipolar herself.
Newly unearthed […]

Awesome webcomic Overcompensating by Jeffrey Rowland recently featured light therapy for Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Click the image to see all of Mood Lighting, including this endorsement in teensy words at the bottom: “SAD light is designed for successful creative people who need to not suck.”
SAD is affected by variable seasonable levels of sunlight, […]

Philip over at Furious Seasons has a great interview with author Tom Wootton about his two books, The Depression Advantage (2007) and The Bipolar Advantage (2005). These are two self-help books that use “accelerated learning techniques [the author] developed as a corporate consultant to Fortune 500 companies” (according to the Amazon blurb). The Amazon reviews […]

For the second time in a month, Britney Spears has been hospitalized for her mental health concerns. And not exactly in a quiet or private way.
The Los Angeles Times reported this morning that Britney Spears’ was taken to the UCLA Medical Center under a “mental health evaluation hold,” a period of 72 hours when the […]