OBJECTIVES To examine longitudinal patterns of complexity, continuity, and initiation of treatment for youth diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Additionally, we explore bipolar diagnosis stability and its relationship to observed treatment patterns. METHODS A cohort of 426 privately insured youth (ages 6-18) diagnosed with bipolar disorder was identified from the 2000-2001 Thomson/Medstat-Marke...

BACKGROUND Lithium has been the gold standard in treating bipolar disorder. In recent years, the use of lithium seems to be diminished although it is well tolerated among the bipolar disorder patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of lithium as well as to determine factors associated with lithium response among patient with bipolar disorder. ...

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition characterized by episodes of elevated mood interspersed with episodes of depression. While treatment developments and understanding the disruptive nature of this illness have focused on these episodes, it is also evident that some patients may have chronic week-to-week mood instability. This is also a major morbidity. The longitudinal pattern of this ...

Topiramate is an antiepileptic drug also used in the treatment of bipolar disorder. Several authors have reported the efficacy of topiramate in controlling the clinical manifestations of bipolar disorder and its ability to reduce the appetite, thus, the weight. Here, we present a case report showing a strong evidence of topiramate effectiveness in the treatment of obesity induced by psychotropi...

objective: the purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and possible variables on changing the diagnosis of mood disorder patients to schizophrenia.  method: this study was a retrospective and comparative analytic research that was performed in 2006 in razi psychiatric hospital. the sample consisted of all the 176 patients who were hospitalized in 2000 with the diagnosis of mood disor...

OBJECTIVE Relatively little is known about the co-occurrence of bipolar and eating disorders. We therefore assessed the prevalence and clinical correlates of eating disorders in 875 patients with bipolar disorder. METHOD 875 outpatients with DSM-IV bipolar I or II disorder were evaluated with structured diagnostic interviews and clinician- and self-administered questionnaires to determine bip...

BACKGROUND Various paper-based mood charting instruments are used in the monitoring of symptoms in bipolar disorder. During recent years an increasing number of electronic self-monitoring tools have been developed. The objectives of this systematic review were 1) to evaluate the validity of electronic self-monitoring tools as a method of evaluating mood compared to clinical rating scales for de...

In this article, it is aimed to review the efficacies of mood stabilizers and atypical antipsychotics, which are used commonly in psychopharmacological treatments of bipolar and borderline personality disorders. In this context, common phenomenology between borderline personality and bipolar disorders and differential features of clinical diagnosis will be reviewed in line with the literature. ...

Since the previous publication of Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) guidelines in 1997, there has been a substantial increase in evidence-based treatment options for bipolar disorder. The present guidelines review the new evidence and use criteria to rate strength of evidence and incorporate effectiveness, safety, and tolerability data to determine global clinical recomm...

Background Cross-national differences in the prevalence of bipolar disorder and other psychopathology in offspring of parents with bipolar disorder have been reported. The present study aims to explore and clarify cross-national differences in categorical and dimensional psychopathology between US and Dutch bipolar offspring. Methods We compared two existing bipolar offspring studies (age range...