Depression links PTSD to life quality in bipolar disorder
By Liam Davenport, medwireNews Reporter The association between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and mental health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among individuals with bipolar disorder may be mediated by depressive symptoms, the results of a US study indicate. “These findings underscore the importance of proper screening and treatment for these two debilitating conditions because impairments in [...]
Mood disorder clinics improve bipolar disorder outcomes
By Lucy Piper, Senior medwireNews Reporter Early treatment of patients with bipolar disorder in a specialized mood disorder clinic substantially reduces the risk for readmission to a psychiatric hospital, clinical trial findings show. Such treatment significantly reduced the risk for readmission over an average 2.5-year period by 40% compared with standard treatment, say Lars Vedel [...]
Cannabis use may worsen illness course in bipolar disorder
By Mark Cowen, Senior medwireNews Reporter Cannabis use disorder (CUD) is associated with a more severe illness course among patients with bipolar disorder (BD), researchers report. Shaul Lev-Ran (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) and colleagues also found that BD patients with co-occurring CUD were more likely than those without to use [...]
Mood episodes impair QoL in young adults
By Mark Cowen, Senior medwire News Reporter Mood episodes have a significant negative effect on quality of life (QoL) in young adults, even among those without diagnosed bipolar disorder, Brazilian researchers report. The team found that young adults with depressive, manic/hypomanic, or mixed mood episodes had significantly poorer scores on the 36-item Short-Form General Health [...]
Pregnancy and birth complications more likely in mothers with bipolar disorder
Babies born to mothers with bipolar disorder are at increased risk of preterm birth (before 37 weeks) a study published today on bmj.com suggests. Infants of mothers with untreated bipolar disorder are also at increased risks of outcomes related to fetal growth restriction. Bipolar disorder (sometimes called manic depression) is a serious, long term condition [...]
Replicating risk genes in 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 [...]
Ketamine for Depression: The Most Important Advance in Field in 50 Years?
In any given year, 7% of adults suffer from major depression, and at least 1 in 10 youth will reckon with the disorder at some point during their teenage years. But about 20% of these cases will not respond to current treatments; for those that do, relief may take weeks to months to come. There [...]
Comorbid physical, psychiatric disorders common in BD
By Ingrid Grasmo, medwireNews Reporter Findings from the Singapore Mental Health Study show that over two-thirds of individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) have other lifetime mental disorders, with approximately half also experiencing at least one chronic physical condition. Despite this, the findings published in the Journal of Affective Disorders show that only one-third of the [...]
Teen BD patients show specific gray matter deficits
By Mark Cowen, Senior medwireNews Reporter Results from a US study show that adolescents with bipolar I disorder (BD I) who have experienced their first episode of mania have gray matter deficits in the left subgenual cingulate cortex. The findings, published in Bipolar Disorders, suggest that such deficits are present at the onset of mania [...]
Mood disorder, anxiety risk elevated in children with mood disordered parents
By Mark Cowen, medwireNews Reporter Children with a parental history of bipolar disorder (BD) or major depressive disorder (MDD) are at increased risk for any mood or anxiety disorder, research shows. The team also found that children with a parental history of BD were more likely to develop recurrent MDD than the children of parents [...]
