Bipolar Disorder

Medical colleagues routinely monitor patients with sphygmomanometers, peak flow meters, and glucometers. Similarly, psychiatrists can and should incorporate the use of screening tools to help with diagnosis and treatment management.

The DSM-5 leadership is trying to put a brave face on its badly failed first stage of field testing and has offered no excuse or explanation for canceling its second and most crucial quality control stage. This field testing fiasco erases whatever was left of the credibility of DSM-5 and APA.

Treating bipolar disorder in women has unique concerns. For example, contraceptive use can decrease the level of mood stabilizers and alter their effectiveness.

Despite the high prevalence of depression among youths, there are empirically supported treatments that have been shown to reduce depressogenic symptoms, including the 3 therapies outlined in this article.

This essay begins an ongoing series on bipolar disorder focused on clinical utility.

There are many rapidly effective treatments for mania in bipolar disorder. However, there are relatively few options for bipolar depression, and none that are rapidly effective-even though bipolar depression constitutes between 20% to 50% of all depressive disorders.

Many psychiatrists are not familiar with the latest developments in neuroscience and many clinicians are a bit skeptical about the relevance of neuroscience in their practice.

A plethora of studies support the hypothesis that inflammation plays a role in the pathophysiology of major psychiatric disorders.

Given the likelihood that insufficient numbers of patients will be available for a randomized controlled trial of MAOIs in refractory depression or atypical depression, we must still rely on consensus guidelines and expert opinion.

It would not be overstating matters to say that during his long career, Dr Thomas Szasz has been one of the most controversial figures in the psychiatric profession.

Suicide involves a complex array of psychological, biological, social, and cultural factors, and it is particularly likely to occur during periods of individual, family, and socioeconomic crises associated with loss and shame. What 3 psychiatric disorders are most often associated with suicide?

Do not be surprised if you hear more about hybrid models of psychiatric diagnoses included in DSM-5. The categorical and dimensional model approaches are 2 sides of the same coin as you look at the same patient from 2 different angles.

Anti-psychiatry proponents forget it is widely recognized that the DSM is a provisional diagnostic system pending progress in better understanding uniquely human disorders of our most complex organ.

The role of subtyping and bipolarity in TRD was discussed in Part 1 of this 2-part article. Here we review a number of the most common confounding factors of TRD but limit our scope to comorbidities that can be directly addressed and treated by psychiatrists.

Ongoing advances in functional brain imaging will permit studies on postulated roles of magnetic fields, biophotons, and macroscopic highly coherent quantum field effects on normal brain functioning and mental illness.

Effective personalized treatment recognizes bipolar disorder as a biopsychosocial disorder, but mood-stabilizing medications are the backbone of treatment. These medications fall into 3 categories: lithium, antikindling/antiepileptic agents, and second-generation antipsychotics.

Our current diagnostic system is based more on subjective clinical judgments and less biological psychiatry. There is not one way to develop symptoms of schizophrenia or bipolar disorder or autistim or OCD.

The current system of payment for mental health care in the US can lead, or even incentivize, clinicians to focus on and code for Axis I disorders and their more readily reimbursed psychopharmacological treatment approaches.

The side effect of persons with psychiatric illness like bipolar disorder going off medication can be destructive. This patient had been in trouble with the local police, who saw her as a troublemaker and a menace.

DSM-5 better captures the essence of narcissistic personality disorder (NPD) than previous versions did. The hypervigilant NPD subtype is the least understood but seen the most often in patients.

There is rapidly escalating interest in drugs that target the glutamatergic neurotransmitter system, especially NMDA receptor modulators. The hope is that they will fill the large unmet need for rapid-acting antidepressant medications with efficacy in treatment-resistant depression.

Importantly for lay and clinician readers alike, the book Monkey Mind: A Memoir of Anxiety reads as humor-laced triumph with many lost battles along the way rather than enduring unrelenting tragedy.

The California Supreme Court’s decision in the Tarasoff case over 30 years ago has become a standard part of mental health practice. This case influenced the legal requirements governing therapists’ duty to protect third parties in nearly every state in the US.

In light of our problems and uncertainties about the state of current psychiatry, or perhaps because of them, what might describe good psychiatry? Following are some suggestions for what we, as psychiatrists, can do.

Prejudice is a net that ensnares not only those who suffer from severe psychiatric illness, but also many of us who care for individuals with bipolar and other disorders.

The Suicide Risk Screening Alert is a clinical tool that assists the psychiatrist and nonpsychiatric physician in identifying patients at risk for suicide during brief medication management appointments.

ADHD has been significantly associated with a primary diagnosis of impulse control disorder and bipolar disorder and most commonly associated with social phobia and major depressive disorder. Details here. . .

Dr Michael Thase touches on an APA presentation about newer applications of cognitive therapy for disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Staying empathic and keeping the conflict within the patient instead of between the patient and health care provider, is a key to successful management.

The paradigm for modern psychiatry is evidence-based medicine (EBM)-it represents proven treatments for defined diagnoses. But there are major problems with this position, starting with the fact that while they are superior to placebo, evidence-based treatments too often are ineffective.