Bipolar Disorder News and Research

Latest Bipolar Disorder News and Research

Link between autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), a category that includes autism, Asperger Syndrome, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, are characterized by difficulty with social interaction and communication, or repetitive behaviors. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Management says that one in 88 children in the US is somewhere on the Autism spectrum - an alarming ten-fold increase in the last four decades.

24 Oct 2012

Anxiety linked to symptom severity in bipolar disorder

Anxiety is common in bipolar disorder patients experiencing an episode of acute mania and is associated with increased mood symptom severity, research shows.

23 Oct 2012

Family functioning linked to disease course in adolescent BD

Family cohesion, adaptability, and conflict are associated with disease course in adolescent patients with bipolar disorder, US researchers report.

23 Oct 2012

Immediate postoperative radiation improves prostate cancer progression survival

Radiation immediately after prostate cancer surgery substantially improves biochemical progression-free survival and local control over 10 years compared with a wait-and-see policy, European study findings indicate.

22 Oct 2012

Multivitamin use may protect men from cancer

Men who take a daily multivitamin supplement have a modest reduction in their risk for developing cancer, suggest results from the Physicians’ Health Study II.

22 Oct 2012

Mental Health experts examine classifications of children's illness; Eating disorders patients worry about coverage

The Wall Street Journal looks at the effort to include kids' problems in the newest revision of psychiatrists' diagnostic manual. Also, KHN offers a story about the debate over health insurance for people with eating problems.

20 Oct 2012

All-cause mortality risk increased in bipolar depression

Depressed patients with bipolar disorder are at significantly greater risk for all-cause mortality, suicide, and accidental death than patients with other types of depression, Taiwanese study results show.

19 Oct 2012

First Edition: October 19, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about how Medicare and women's health issues are playing in a number of House and Senate races.

19 Oct 2012

Activity levels may distinguish unipolar from bipolar disorder

The measurement of activity levels may help distinguish patients with unipolar depression from those with bipolar disorder when they are in a remitted or mild/moderate depressive state, say researchers.

18 Oct 2012

Nonpsychiatric medical costs high in bipolar disorder patients

The use of nonpsychiatric healthcare services is greater and associated costs higher in bipolar disorder patients than in those without the mood disorder, results from a Taiwanese study show.

17 Oct 2012

Genetic signatures for aggressive prostate cancer identified

Researchers have identified two genetic signatures for castration-resistant prostate cancer that may predict the severity of the disease.

17 Oct 2012

Botulinum treatment benefits in BPH maybe down to placebo effect

Treatment with botulinum toxin has proved no more effective than placebo at reducing symptoms in men with lower urinary tract symptoms due to benign prostate hyperplasia, show study findings.

17 Oct 2012

People in creative professions are treated more often for mental illness

People in creative professions are treated more often for mental illness than the general population, there being a particularly salient connection between writing and schizophrenia. This according to researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, whose large-scale registry study is the most comprehensive ever in its field.

17 Oct 2012

Sustained attention deficits in bipolar patients, relatives

Patients with bipolar disorder and their first-degree relatives exhibit deficits in sustained attention, study results show.

16 Oct 2012

Male infertility linked to an enzyme complex issue

An enzyme complex present in sperm plasma membranes plays an important role in the overproduction of reactive oxygen species and oxidative stress in sperm with abnormal morphology, researchers have shown.

15 Oct 2012

Chromosome 3p21.1 locus contains common genetic risk for bipolar disorder

One of the biggest challenges in psychiatric genetics has been to replicate findings across large studies. Scientists at King's College London, Institute of Psychiatry have now performed one of the largest ever genetic replication studies of bipolar affective disorder, with 28,000 subjects recruited from 36 different research centers. Their findings provide compelling evidence that the chromosome 3p21.1 locus contains a common genetic risk for bipolar disorder, the PBRM1 gene.

15 Oct 2012