Bipolar Disorder News and Research RSS Feed - Bipolar Disorder News and Research

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy, activity levels, and the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks. Symptoms of bipolar disorder are severe. They are different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through from time to time. Bipolar disorder symptoms can result in damaged relationships, poor job or school performance, and even suicide. But bipolar disorder can be treated, and people with this illness can lead full and productive lives.
Report shows identical genetic mutations are shared among neurodevelopmental disorders

Report shows identical genetic mutations are shared among neurodevelopmental disorders

A paper published this month in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Neurology suggests that a broad spectrum of developmental and psychiatric disorders, ranging from autism and intellectual disability to schizophrenia, should be conceptualized as different manifestations of a common underlying denominator, "developmental brain dysfunction," rather than completely independent conditions with distinct causes. [More]

Study explores a better alternative for treating bipolar disorder

Toxicity problems and adverse side effects when taking lithium, the mainstay medication for treating bipolar disorder, are fostering a scientific hunt for insights into exactly how lithium works in the body - with an eye to developing a safer alternative. [More]
Research shows people with serious mental illness can achieve significant weight loss

Research shows people with serious mental illness can achieve significant weight loss

Through a program that teaches simple nutrition messages and involves both counseling and regular exercise classes, people with serious mental illness can make healthy behavioral changes and achieve significant weight loss, according to new Johns Hopkins research. [More]
Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression no barrier to weight loss success

Mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder or major depression no barrier to weight loss success

Through a program that teaches simple nutrition messages and involves both counseling and regular exercise classes, people with serious mental illness can make healthy behavioral changes and achieve significant weight loss, according to new Johns Hopkins research. [More]
APS to present scientific abstracts at Experimental Biology 2013

APS to present scientific abstracts at Experimental Biology 2013

The American Physiological Society is one of six scientific societies sponsoring the meeting Experimental Biology 2013, being held April 20-24, 2013 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, in Boston, Mass. [More]
Majority of women have postpartum depressive symptoms, finds study

Majority of women have postpartum depressive symptoms, finds study

A surprisingly high number of women have postpartum depressive symptoms, according to a new, large-scale study by a Northwestern Medicine- researcher. [More]
GABA neuronal deficits in psychiatric disorder can be prevented using N-acetylcysteine: Study

GABA neuronal deficits in psychiatric disorder can be prevented using N-acetylcysteine: Study

Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) deficits have been implicated in schizophrenia and depression. In schizophrenia, deficits have been particularly well-described for a subtype of GABA neuron, the parvalbumin fast-spiking interneurons. [More]

AKAP protein alterations implicated in bipolar disorder

Researchers have found increased cellular expression of the postsynaptic signaling protein AKAP5/79 in the anterior cingulate cortex of patients with bipolar disorder. [More]
Family-focused therapy improves mood symptoms in youth at risk of bipolar disorder

Family-focused therapy improves mood symptoms in youth at risk of bipolar disorder

A study published in the February 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that children and adolescents with major depression or subthreshold forms of bipolar disorder - and who had at least one first-degree relative with bipolar disorder - responded better to a 12-session family-focused treatment than to a briefer educational treatment. [More]

Attachment to parents unaffected in offspring of bipolar disorder patients

Children born to families where at least one parent has bipolar disorder do not show abnormalities in attachment compared with other children, say Canadian researchers. [More]
Prostate tissue androgen content predicts ADT outcome

Prostate tissue androgen content predicts ADT outcome

Determining the androgen content in prostate tissue could predict patients’ responses to androgen deprivation therapy and the risk for castration-resistant prostate cancer, show study findings. [More]

Non-social cognitive deficits outweigh social ones in bipolar disorder

Patients with bipolar disorder have relatively greater impairments in non-social cognition than social cognition, whereas the opposite is true for patients with schizophrenia, researchers report. [More]
UK’s health performance declining compared with 14 EU countries over past 20 years

UK’s health performance declining compared with 14 EU countries over past 20 years

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Bipolar disorder patients avoid rewarding activities

People with bipolar I disorder tend to be aware of the potential for goal achievement to trigger mania and as a result dampen their emotions and avoid reward, preliminary research suggests. [More]

Misdiagnosed bipolar depression has subtle clinical features

Increased appetite, sleep, and weight gain, among other clinical features, can be used to help identify patients with bipolar disorder who have been misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder. [More]

Androgen deprivation therapy interferes with diabetes control

Androgen deprivation therapy for prostate cancer hampers glycemic control in men with diabetes, report researchers. [More]

KMO gene variant associated with increased production of kynurenic acid

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found an explanation for why the level of kynurenic acid (KYNA) is higher in the brains of people with schizophrenia or bipolar disease with psychosis. The study, which is published in the scientific periodical Molecular Psychiatry, identifies a gene variant associated with an increased production of KYNA. [More]
Bipolar disorder associated with increased hypertension risk

Bipolar disorder associated with increased hypertension risk

Taiwanese individuals with bipolar disorder are at an increased risk for hypertension when compared with the general population, research shows. [More]
Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia share common genetic risk factors

Autism, ADHD, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia share common genetic risk factors

For the first time, scientists have discovered that five major psychiatric disorders—autism, attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and schizophrenia—share several common genetic risk factors. [More]
Biomarker for testicular sperm extraction outcome discovered

Biomarker for testicular sperm extraction outcome discovered

Researchers have used an original proteomic strategy to identify a biomarker for residual spermatogenesis in the semen of patients with nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA). [More]