Bipolar
Does DSM-5 Matter? Yes; but not for Psychiatrists
by Vivek Datta, M.D., M.P.H.
May 13, 2013
What makes the DSM so pernicious is that it is a cultural document whose influence transcends not only psychiatric practice but also the Western civilization from which it originates. Each revision of the DSM rescripts and reimagines how we make sense of our experiences, reinterprets what thoughts, feelings and behaviors are socially sanctioned, and ultimately what it means to be human.
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Categorized in: Bipolar, Blogs, Depression, DSM, Featured Blogs, Psychiatric Drugs, Rethinking Psychiatry/Medical Model, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders
Patterns of Adverse Childhood Events Associated with Characteristics of Bipolar Disorder
March 27, 2013
BMC Psychiatry offers an examination of the history of childhood abuse among 141 patients with bipolar disorder found that fins “childhood trauma is associated with a more severe course of bipolar illness… By using specific trauma factors (physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse/neglect) the associations become both more precise, and diverse.”
Categorized in: Adult, Bipolar, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Featured News, In the News, Trauma/Distress
Hospital Stays for Juvenile Bipolar Jumped 434% from 1997 to 2010
March 20, 2013
A report from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project finds that hospital stays for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children aged 5-9 increased 696% from 1997 to 2010, 475% in children aged 10-14, and 345% in those aged 15-17. By 2010, mood disorders had become the most frequent principal diagnosis in children aged 1-17.
Categorized in: Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Disorders, Featured News, In the News, Research
Jim Gottstein Talks with Gary Null About Drugging Children
October 4, 2012
Categorized in: Antipsychotics, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Mood Stabilizers, Psychiatric Drugs, Schizophrenia and Psychosis, Videos
Pressuring Parents to Drug Children
October 4, 2012
Jim Gottstein on Pressuring Parents to Drug Children
Categorized in: Antipsychotics, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Psychiatric Drugs, Schizophrenia and Psychosis, Videos
Trauma and Misdiagnosis in Childhood Bipolar Disorder
October 4, 2012
Psychology Today offers a psychoanalytic perspective on childhood bipolar disorder that finds trauma at the root, a view that sees Beyond Meds as extending beyond the diagnoses of childhood.
Categorized in: Around The Web, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Non-Drug Approaches, Psychotherapy, Trauma/Distress
2 Reasons Why Time-Outs Do Not Work
by Howard Glasser
September 30, 2012
The fundamental importance of connection to a child helps us to understand the use of “Time-Outs” which, used improperly, can be like pouring gas on a fire in a situation that is already not working; causing a distressed child to go further awry and potentially contributing to symptomatology that puts them at risk of being identified as ADHD, anxious, or bipolar.
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Categorized in: ADHD, Bipolar, Blogs, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Featured Blogs, Non-Drug Approaches, Trauma/Distress
Off-Label Antipsychotic Use Among Children Soaring
September 11, 2012
Researchers from Philadelphia and Baltimore find, in a study of Medicaid records for 50 states and the District of Columbia, that antipsychotic prescribing to Medicaid-enrolled children increased 62% from 2002 to 2007. Although proportionally more youth with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia or autism received antipsychotics, by 2007 youth with ADHD accounted for 50 percent of the total antipsychotic use. The authors express concern about the need for efficacy data, in light of safety concerns.
Categorized in: ADHD, Antipsychotics, Autism, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Featured News, In the News, Industry, Psychiatric Drugs, Research, Schizophrenia and Psychosis
Will Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) Reduce False Diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder in Children?
August 21, 2012
Neuroskeptic takes on a new paper that proposes a new DSM-5′s diagnosis will reduce the epidemic of bipolar diagnosis in children, comparing it to fighting a fire by throwing kerosene on it.
Categorized in: Around The Web, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders
Harvard Psychologist Critiques Psychiatry
August 7, 2012
Eminent developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan, in an interview with Spiegel, accuses the mental-health establishment and pharmaceutical companies of incorrectly classifying millions as mentally ill out of self-interest and greed. “That is the history of humanity: Those in authority believe they’re doing the right thing, and they harm those who have no power,” Kagan says.
Categorized in: ADHD, Anxiety, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Disorders, DSM, Featured News, In the News
Drugging of Foster Children Forces Government Review
July 1, 2012
Three government agencies – the Administration for Children and Families, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration – are convening a meeting August 27 and 28 to address the crisis of “overmedication” – and rash of related scandals – in foster children. “The medical literature shows no studies of the long-term effects of antipsychotic drugs on children,” says one psychologist and lawyer involved in child welfare issues.
Categorized in: ADHD, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, In the News
Familial Factors Affect Depression, BD, OCD, PD, and Phobias
June 24, 2012
A study of 566 families with 1416 bipolar-disordered members, and 675 families with 1726 depressed members by researchers from Johns Hopkins and the University of Iowa, published in Psychological Medicine‘s July issue finds that the comorbidity of these disorders with OCD, panic disorder and specific phobia is “at least partly due to familial factors, which may be of relevance to both phenotypic and genetic studies of co-morbidity.”
Categorized in: Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety, Bipolar, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Depression, Disorders, Genetics, In the News, Non-Drug Approaches, Nuclear Genetics, Research, Trauma/Distress
Update on the Association Between ADHD and Bipolar
June 24, 2012
Researchers from the MRC Social, Genetic and Developmental Psychiatry Centre of King’s College’s Institute of Psychiatry in London, publishing in the Journal of Affective Disorders, review the literature on ADHD and bipolar disorder. The boundaries between the two are blurred, they say, and “comorbidity and family studies appear to show that the two disorders occur together and aggregate in families at higher than expected rates. Furthermore close inspection of results from population studies reveals heightened co-occurrence of ADHD and BD even in the context of high comorbidity commonly noted in psychopathology. These results point towards a meaningful association between ADHD and BD, going beyond symptomatic similarities.”
Categorized in: ADHD, Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety, Bipolar, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Research
Nevada Legislation Aims to Curb Psychotropics in Foster Children
June 18, 2012
A touching article in the Las Vegas Sun follows one child from abandonment through foster placements, polypharmacy, suicidality, delinquency and homelessness to stability off medication and with close support. The article weaves this story together with recent efforts to curb the use of medications in foster care.
Categorized in: ADHD, Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, Benzodiazepines, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Community, Disorders, In the News, Mood Stabilizers, Non-Drug Approaches, Psychiatric Drugs, Recovery/Empowerment, Stimulants, Trauma/Distress
Australia Plans To Screen 3 Year Olds For Mental Illness
June 15, 2012
A controversial move by the Australian Federal Government plans to screen 3 year olds for early signs of mental illness as part of routine health checks. Parents and some of the countries top doctors are concerned that tests could lead to over-diagnosis.
Categorized in: ADHD, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, Research, Videos
Association Between ADHD and Bipolar Disorder
June 5, 2012
Researchers in London review the literature on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BD), finding that “comorbidity and family studies appear to show that the two disorders occur together and aggregate in families at higher than expected rates. Furthermore close inspection of results from population studies reveals heightened co-occurrence of ADHD and BD even in the context of high comorbidity commonly noted in psychopathology. These results point towards a meaningful association between ADHD and BD, going beyond symptomatic similarities.” The study was released online by the Journal of Affective Disorders on May 24, 2012.
Categorized in: ADHD, Adult, Anxiety, Bipolar, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, In the News, Research
Psychotropic Drugs and Children
May 24, 2012
Psychotropic Drugs and Children
June 15, 2010
Robert Whitaker, author of Anatomy of an Epidemic, discusses the disturbing effects of psychotropic drugs prescribed for children. Such medications, used for ADHD, depression, and anxiety, for example, have become commonplace over the past 30 years. This practice profoundly alters the lives of the children, and so now we, as a society, urgently need to address this question: do the medications help the children thrive and grow up into healthy adults? Or does this practice do more harm than good over the long term. Robert Whitaker emphasizes two things: first, the need for an objective, evidence-based approach to evaluating these drugs; and second, the need for better public understanding of how these medications work.
Categorized in: ADHD, Anxiety, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Disorders, DSM, Psychiatric Drugs, Stimulants, Videos
Bipolar, AKA Unipolar Mania
May 23, 2012
Teens may have mania without depression, making their bipolar illness harder to classify, according to a new NIMH study. Interviews with 10,213 teens found that 2.5 percent met criteria for bipolar disorder, a rate similar to that of adults, but 1.7 percent had mania only without the depression.
Categorized in: Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Disorders, In the News, Research
APA Proposes Alternative to Juvenile Bipolar
May 10, 2012
In response to pressure over the 40-fold increase of bipolar diagnoses in children, many of which are being reviewed and dropped in retrospect, the APA has proposed a new, potentially more transient “disruptive mood dysregulation disorder” that would apply to children with chronic irritability and recurrent temper outbursts, and would ostensibly be treated with antidepressants instead of antipsychotics. The proposal, according to the Boston Globe, has brought new scrutiny to Joseph Biederman, who argued that chronic irritability can be interpreted as juvenile mania.
Categorized in: Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety, Bipolar, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Depression, Disorders, In the News, Non-Drug Approaches, Trauma/Distress
Sexual Side Effects of Medications in Young People
April 20, 2012
The effects of antidepressants and mood stabilizers on young people’s psychosexual development receive little attention or research, says Kaitlin Bell Barnett (author of “Dosed: The Medication Generation Grows Up”). She attributes the “shocking lack of studies” to a puritanical attitude toward teenage sexuality, and writes about the “shortsighted” approach to the lasting effects on young peoples’ development and psyches.
Categorized in: Antidepressants, Antipsychotics, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Depression, Disorders, In the News, Industry, Mood Stabilizers, Psychiatric Drugs, Research
Labels Initiates Core Social Support, Lose Peripheral Ties
April 10, 2012
Article Abstract:
Although research supports the stigma and labeling perspective, empirical evidence also indicates that a social safety net remains intact for those with mental illness, recalling the classic “sick role” concept. Here, insights from social networks theory are offered as explanation for these discrepant findings. Using data from individuals experiencing their first contact with the mental health treatment system, the effects of diagnosis and symptoms on social networks and stigma experiences are examined. The findings suggest that relative to those with less severe affective disorders, individuals with severe diagnoses and more visible symptoms of mental illness have larger, more broadly functional networks, as well as more supporters who are aware of and sympathetic toward the illness situation. However, those with more severe diagnoses are also vulnerable to rejection and discrimination by acquaintances and strangers. These findings suggest that being formally labeled with a mental illness may present a paradox, simultaneously initiating beneficial social processes within core networks and detrimental ones among peripheral ties.
Categorized in: ADHD, Adult, Anxiety, Anxiety, Autism, Bipolar, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, Community, Dementia, Depression, Depression, Disorders, Hearing Voices, Non-Drug Approaches, Personality Disorders, Recovery/Empowerment, Research, Schizophrenia and Psychosis, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders
Bipolar? When Quitting is the Answer
by Howard Glasser
March 29, 2012
Whether it’s the Nurtured Heart Approach, or any other method that’s truly up to the task, we need these effective strategies and ways of thinking to be more widespread so we can lessen the pitfalls of the medical model’s limited prospective which has no idea of how to turn intense into immensely great.
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Categorized in: ADHD, Adult, Anxiety, Bipolar, Bipolar, Blogs, Children and Adolescents, Depression, DSM, Mad in America, Medication Tapering/Withdrawal, Non-Drug Approaches | Tagged as: adderal, ADHD, Anxiety, anxiety disorder, Bipolar Disorder, challenging child, Depression, difficult child, medications, Ritalin
Madness Radio: Sharna Olfman on Medicating Children Diagnosed Bipolar
by Will Hall
March 19, 2012
Professor Sharna Olfman has researched and written extensively about children in society, including education and sexuality, and her perspective on so-called bipolar disorder is insightful and deserves wide recognition. Sharna discusses the social and economic pressures that are driving parents …
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Categorized in: Bipolar, Bipolar, Blogs, Children and Adolescents, Disorders
45% of Children and Adolescent Inpatients Prescribed Antipsychotics
March 15, 2012
In a rare long-term study of antipsychotics used in children and adolescent inpatients, the Institute of Living in Hartford, CT followed 3,851 consecutive admissions over a ten-year period. Results show that nearly 45% of children and adolescents were prescribed antipsychotics. “This is an important issue,” said Dr. John W. Goethe, the study’s presenter, “because these antipsychotic medications are commonly prescribed” despite being used for indications that have not been approved by the FDA. The results were presented yesterday at the 17th annual Psychopharmacology Conference in Las Vegas, NV.
Categorized in: Antipsychotics, Anxiety, Bipolar, Childhood Adversity/Trauma, Children and Adolescents, In the News, Psychiatric Drugs, Research, Schizophrenia and Psychosis
$1 Billion J&J Settlement Rejected as Insufficient
March 10, 2012
Federal prosecutors have rejected as insufficient the $1 billion settlement reached two months ago between Johnson & Johnson and prosecutors in Philadelphia to resolve claims related to fraudulent and unapproved marketing of Risperdal for, among other things, children and the elderly.
Categorized in: Antipsychotics, Bipolar, Children and Adolescents, Dementia, Disorders, In the News, Industry, Psychiatric Drugs, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders
