"I've got a light. It keeps on shining in my mind. Day and night. It just
keeps burnin' all the time." - Sean Costello, No Half Steppin'
Bipolar
Disorder Resources / Treatment
If you need immediate help or if you are
having thoughts of death or suicide, call 1-800-273-TALK.
If you need immediate assistance call 911 or go to a hospital emergency
room.
GRIEF COUNSELING
In light of the loss of several members
of the Atlanta music community in recent months, it is important
to be aware of the affect that grief can have on friends, family
members and colleagues. While the Sean Costello Memorial Fund is
not equipped to provide grief counseling, the Fund encourages those
suffering loss to contact Emory OPTP Clinic for low cost individual
and/or group psychotherapy at 404-727-0399. The OPTP (Outpatient
Psychotherapy Training Program) provides therapy to those without
insurance.
NATIONAL NETWORK OF DEPRESSION CENTERS
The National Network of Depression
Centers (NNDC) is an initiative being launched by the University of
Michigan Comprehensive Depression Center, in conjunction with colleague
institutions across the nation. The primary goal of the NNDC is to
transform and accelerate the understanding and treatment of depressive
and bipolar disorders by developing an integrated network of leading
Depression Centers. The multidisciplinary outreach programs of the
NNDC will help to better diagnose and treat depression and bipolar
illness, as well as eradicate stigma associated with these diseases Website: http://nndc.org/members/
Graphical
Mood Chart
The mood chart shows your daily mood
level along with your hours of sleep and your medications. The chart
can show a month, a quarter, or a year of information.
Public Forum
Our forum is unique because you can
share your mood chart and medication history with others. Now you
can give and take feedback with other forum members.
Medication History
The Medication History helps you
keep track of what meds you're taking now as well as what meds you've
had in the past. Dosage amounts and dosage frequency are tracked
too.
Support Alerts
With Support Alerts you can schedule
text messages to be sent to a cell phone on a periodic basis to remind
you to take your meds, or to notify a friend that you are having
a manic episode. It also works with e-mail.
Connect with Your Caregiver
Because your mood chart and medication
history are online, it's easy to give your caregiver access to it.
Now your caregiver can take a more active role in your treatment.
NATIONAL
ALLIANCE ON MENTAL ILLNESS (NAMI) NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the nation’s largest
grassroots organization dedicated to improving the lives of individuals
and families affected by mental illness. NAMI has a national organization
as well as state organizations and local affiliates in more than 1,100
communities across the country.
Website: www.nami.org
TOPICS INCLUDE:
- Definition
- Symptoms
- Causes
- Risk factors
- When to seek medical advice
- Tests and diagnosis
- Complications
- Treatments and drugs
- Prevention
- Lifestyle and home remedies
- Coping and support
- Alternative medicine
BIPOLAR
DISORDER AND ANXIETY DISORDERS:
Research Identifies Problem Areas Two studies published in January 2007 offer significant insights
into the relationship between bipolar disorder and anxiety disorders,
and the connection between these and substance abuse. These studies
have important implications for bipolar patients, their families and
friends, and for mental health care providers.
Website: www.about.com
Faulty body clock may make kids bipolar
Malfunctioning circadian clock genes may be responsible for bipolar disorder in children. Researchers
writing in the open access journal BMC Psychiatry found four versions of the regulatory gene RORB
that were associated with pediatric bipolar disorder.
Alexander Niculescu from Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, US, worked with a team
of researchers at Harvard, UC San Diego, Massachusetts General Hospital and SUNY Upstate Medical University
to study the RORA and RORB genes of 152 children with the condition and 140 control children. They found
four alterations to the RORB gene that were positively associated with being bipolar. Niculescu said, "Our
findings suggest that clock genes in general and RORB in particular may be important candidates for further
investigation in the search for the molecular basis of bipolar disorder".
RORB is mainly expressed in the eye, pineal gland and brain. Its expression is known to change as a function
of circadian rhythm in some tissues, and mice without the gene exhibit circadian rhythm abnormalities.
According to Niculescu, "Bipolar disorder is often characterized by circadian rhythm abnormalities,
and this is particularly true among pediatric bipolar patients. Decreased sleep has even been noted as
one of the earliest symptoms discriminating children with bipolar disorder from those with attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It will be necessary to verify our association results in other
independent samples, and to continue to study the relationship between RORB, other clock genes, and bipolar
disorder".
Pediatric bipolar disorder is a controversial diagnosis characterized by alternating bouts of depression
and mania in children, although it does not affect all young people in the same way and the duration
and severity of the disorder can vary enormously.
Notes to Editors:
1. Evidence for Genetic Association
of RORB with Bipolar Disorder
Casey L McGrath, Stephen J Glatt,
Pamela Sklar, Helen Le-Niculescu, Ronald Kuczenski, Alysa E Doyle,
Joseph Biederman, Eric Mick, Stephen V Faraone, Alexander B Niculescu
and Ming T Tsuang
BMC Psychiatry (in press)
Article citation and URL available on request at press@biomedcentral.com <mailto:press@biomedcentral.com> on
the day of publication
2. BMC Psychiatry
is an open access journal publishing
original peer-reviewed research articles in all aspects of the prevention,
diagnosis and management of psychiatric disorders, as well as related
molecular genetics, pathophysiology, and epidemiology. BMC Psychiatry(ISSN
1471-244X) is indexed/tracked/covered
by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, Scopus, EMBASE, PsycINFO, Current Contents,
Thomson Reuters (ISI) and Google Scholar.
3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/
is an STM (Science, Technology and
Medicine) publisher which has pioneered
the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles
published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible
online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed
Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global
publisher in the STM sector.
The Conquering Insomnia program is a PDF (Adobe Reader)
based treatment program that is designed as if you are a patient going
through the five-session, five-week CBT treatment program developed
and tested at Harvard Medical School.
Patient appointments and referrals (for those with insurance such as Medicare/Medicaid)
- Adults 404-778-5526
- Children and adolescents 404-727-3973
- Geriatric patients 404-728-6302
OPTP (Outpatient Psychotherapy Training
Program) Clinic (for those without insurance)
Low cost individual and/or group
therapy
- 404-727-0399
Emory Psychopharmacology Clinic
- 404-727-3903
Mood
and Anxiety Disorders Program
The purpose of our program is to
help find improved treatments for depression and anxiety disorders.
Most of our studies involve the evaluation of a medication while others
may involve psychotherapy or other non-medication treatments. Our staff
includes an experienced team of medical doctors, psychologists, social
workers and nurses in the field of psychiatry and medical research. - 404-778-MOOD (6663)
The Bipolar Disorder Survival Guide: What You and
Your Family Need to Know
Miklowitz, D. J.
New York: Guilford Press. (2002)
[ Purchase on Amazon.com ]
Living with Bipolar Disorder:
A Guide for Individuals and Families
Otto, M. W., Reilly-Harrington, N.
A., Knauz, R. O., Henin, A., Kogan, J. N., & Sachs, G. S. Oxford
University Press. (2008)
[ Purchase on Amazon.com ]
Managing Bipolar Disorder: A Cognitive Behavior Treatment Program
Workbook (Treatments That Work)
Otto, M. W., Reilly-Harrington, N.
A., Kogan, J. N., Henin, A., Knauz, R. O., & Sachs, G. S. Oxford
University Press. (2008)
[ Purchase on Amazon.com ]
Coping with Bipolar Disorder: A CBT
Guide to Living with Manic Depression.
Jones, S., Hayward, P., Lam, D.
One world Publications (2002)
[ Purchase on Amazon.com ]
An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness (Autobiography)
Kay Redfield Jamison
Vintage. (1997)
[ Purchase on Amazon.com ]
