Bipolar blogger Natasha Tracy offers exclusive insight into the world of bipolar disorder.
A couple of years ago there was a major meta-analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that questioned the efficacy of antidepressants, particularly for people with less severe depression. It stated: “The magnitude of ...
Within people at risk for suicide, there are broadly two groups—those at high risk and those at low risk. For example, women attempt suicide far more often than men, but men commit suicide four times more often than women. Latina youth and lesbian...
People with bipolar disorder suffer from extreme versions of emotions. Aspects of mania or hypomania may be like an average emotion, but they are that emotion amped up to a level 11.
Part one of this series discussed the biological differences between a brain with bipolar disorder and one without and while several differences were noted, none can definitively be used to diagnose bipolar disorder.
One of the most frustrating things about my job as a mental health writer has to be dealing with the people that say that mental illness doesn’t exist. It’s dealing with the people who say that bipolar disorder doesn’t exist because there is no de...
I’ve been taking medications for about 14 years now and in that time I have experienced everything from fainting in the middle of the kitchen at work, to becoming psychotic and tachycardic thanks to psychiatric medication.
Antipsychotics (like quetiapine (Seroquel), olanzapine (Zyprexa), or aripiprazole (Abilify)) are actually now the highest-grossing psychiatric medication, ahead of even antidepressants. Antipsychotics (also known as neuroleptics or major tranquili...
When diagnosing bipolar disorder, a psychiatrist assesses previous mood episodes. These mood episodes must reach the criteria for major depression and either mania or hypomania in order to warrant a diagnosis of bipolar disorder I or bipolar disor...
I am not a proponent of alternative treatment. If you look in my bathroom cabinet you will not find kudzu root or ginseng
When someone begins treatment for bipolar disorder, I always recommend therapy along with medication because we know from studies that the combination of the two treatments works better than either alone.
