Word: mood
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...bipolar disorder, there is also a manic phase. It usually begins with a sort of caffeinated, can-do buzz. "Sometimes the patients find the highs pleasant," says Dr. Joseph Calabrese, director of the mood-disorders program at Case Western University in Cleveland. As the emotional engine revs higher, however, that energy can become too much. Bipolars quickly grow aggressive and impulsive. They become grandiose, picking fights, driving too fast, engaging in indiscriminate sex, spending money wildly. They may ultimately become delusionally...
With kids, things aren't nearly so clear. Most children with the condition are ultra-rapid cyclers, flitting back and forth among mood states several times a day. Papolos, who co-wrote The Bipolar Child, studied 300 bipolar kids ages 4 through 18, and he believes he has spotted a characteristic pattern. In the morning, bipolar children are more difficult to rouse than the average child. They resist getting up, getting dressed, heading to school. They are either irritable, with a tendency to snap and gripe, or sullen and withdrawn...
...diagnosed until adulthood. Children with one bipolar parent have a 10% to 30% chance of developing the condition; a bipolar sibling means a 20% risk; if both parents are bipolar, the danger rises as high as 75%. About 90% of bipolars have at least one close relative with a mood disorder...
...conditions, are precipitated by life events such as divorce or death or even a happy rite of passage like starting college. And bipolar disorder can also be set off this way. "Most of us do not think environmental stress causes the disorder," says Dr. Michael Gitlin, head of the mood-disorders clinic at UCLA. "But it can trigger it in people who are already vulnerable...
Anticonvulsants are not the only drugs being reformulated. Also showing promise are the atypical antipsychotics. The best-known antipsychotic, Thorazine, is a comparatively crude preparation that controls delusions by blocking dopamine receptors. In the process, it also causes weight gain, mood flattening and other side effects. Atypical antipsychotics work more precisely, manipulating both dopamine and serotonin and suppressing symptoms without causing so many associated problems. There are numerous atypical antipsychotics out there, including Zyprexa, Risperdal and Haldol, and many are being used to good effect on bipolar patients...