About half of all bipolar patients have an alcohol abuse problem at some point of their lifetime. However, only one randomized, controlled trial of pharmacotherapy (valproate) in this patient population was published as of 2006. Therefore, we reviewed clinical trials in this indication of the last four years (using mood stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics, and other drugs). Priority was given ...

Tourette syndrome consists of multiple motor tics and one or more vocal tics. Psychopathology occurs in approximately 90% of Tourette syndrome patients, with attention-deficit/hyperactivity, mood, and obsessive-compulsive disorders being common. Additionally, Tourette syndrome and bipolar disorder may be related in some individuals. However, it is unclear why bipolar disorder may be overreprese...

Correspondence to: Dalibor Karlović, Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center Sestre milosrdnice, Vinogradska cesta 29, 10000 Zagreb email: [email protected] Introduction Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex psychiatric entity, which represents a diagnostic as well as a therapeutic challenge in clinical practice. The very definition and classification of BD is determined by a...

Any given single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a genome may have little or no functional impact. A biologically significant effect may possibly emerge only when a number of key SNP-related genotypes occur together in a single organism. Thus, in analysis of many SNPs in association studies of complex diseases, it may be useful to look at combinations of genotypes. Genes related to signal tran...

Current literature suggests patients with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of developing migraine compared with the general population and patients with other affective disorders. This study examined whether this finding was evident in the outpatient department of a regional psychiatric hospital. Using a patient database (n=1083), records were screened for bipolar disorder (n=169) or self...

Bipolar disorder is a severe affective disorder which can present in adolescence, or sometimes earlier, and often requires a pharmacotherapeutic approach. The phenomenology of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents appears to differ from that of adult patients, prompting the need for specific pharmacotherapy guidelines for long-term management in this patient population. Current treatment...

A 39-year-old female was suffering from cold-induced Raynaud's attacks in both hands and feet, with symptoms being most severe in her left foot. The patient did not respond to medical treatments and was referred to our department of pain medicine. We performed sequential bipolar radiofrequency lumbar sympathectomy to the patient, which offered a long duration of symptom relief. Sequential bipol...

"Nothing is more difficult than to ascertain the length of time that a maniacal patient can exist without sleep."-Dr. Sutherland (Br J Psychiatry 7(37):1-19, 1861). Dr. Sutherland's patient was suffering from an acute manic episode, which today is called bipolar illness. 150 years later, we continue to struggle with the same challenges in ascertaining accurate symptoms from patients. In era of ...

BACKGROUND Careful observation of the longitudinal course of bipolar disorders is pivotal to finding optimal treatments and improving outcome. A useful tool is the daily prospective Life-Chart Method, developed by the National Institute of Mental Health. However, it remains unclear whether the patient version is as valid as the clinician version. METHODS We compared the patient-rated version ...

BACKGROUND Paraneoplastic retinopathy (PR), including cancer-associated retinopathy (CAR) and melanoma-associated retinopathy (MAR), is a progressive retinal disease caused by antibodies generated against neoplasms not associated with the eye. While several autoantibodies against retinal antigens have been identified, there has been no known autoantibody reacting specifically against bipolar ce...