The Monkey Business Illusion – A Great New Take On A Classic Psychology Study
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An international team of scientists, led by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, reports that abnormal sequences of DNA known as rare copy number variants, or CNVs, appear to play a significant role in the risk for early onset bipolar disorder. The findings will be published in the December 22 issue of the journal Neuron.
Experiencing a psychiatric episode within the first 30 days post-partum appears to be associated with an increased risk of developing bipolar affective disorder, according to a report published Online First by Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. The study was carried out by Trine Munk-Olsen, Ph.D., of the National Centre for Register-Based Research, Arhus University, Arhus, Denmark, and colleagues.
Functional psychosis can be diagnosed from the first indications of the patient, thanks to affective symptomatology. Depressive moods, hyperactivity and lack of concentration are affective symptoms that can present themselves during the first psychotic episodes, and the presence or absence of any of them may contribute to differentiating, at an early stage, between the different variations of the mental disease. Thus concludes researcher Ms. Marta Arrasate, who also pointed to the symptoms belonging to the activation dimension (verborrhea, lack of concentration, hyperactivity, etc.) as the best indicators.
New stem cell lines developed from the skin of adults living with bipolar disorder are providing researchers at the University of Michigan Health System an unprecedented opportunity to delve into the genetic and biological underpinnings of the devastating mood disorder. Scientists will be able to link new findings – such as how gene expression is affected by different medications – to extensive clinical and demographic data from the cell donors, who are also participants in an ongoing long-term study of hundreds of individuals with bipolar disorder.
Researchers from the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (RCSI) and Beaumont Hospital have conducted a study which has found striking brain similarities in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. The research has also pinpointed for the first time that a process which controls how information is transmitted from neuron to neuron in the brain is altered in both conditions and may potentially contribute to the developments of improved treatments in the future.
Positive emotions like joy and compassion are good for your mental and physical health, and help foster creativity and friendship. But people with bipolar disorder seem to have too much of a good thing. In a new article to be published in the August issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, psychologist June Gruber of Yale University considers how positive emotion may become negative in bipolar disorder.
A study published in the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics evaluates the effectiveness of systems training for emotional control in “real world” patients with borderline personality disorder using STEPPS. Systems Training for Emotional Predictability and Problem Solving (STEPPS) is a group treatment for borderline personality disorder (BPD). The results were published in the Journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
Patients with bipolar disorder may be eligible for a new clinical research study comparing two medications – quetiapine (Seroquel), a widely prescribed second-generation antipsychotic mood-stabilizing medication, and lithium, the gold-standard mood stabilizer. The research is funded by a $10 million grant from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ).
A new study by motor control and psychology researchers at Indiana University suggests that postural control problems may be a core feature of bipolar disorder, not just a random symptom, and can provide insights both into areas of the brain affected by the psychiatric disorder and new potential targets for treatment. The study, “Postural control in bipolar disorder: Increased sway area and decreased dynamical complexity,” is published in the Public Library of Science ONE. Check the end of this report for a link to download this open access study.
In the current issue of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, a randomized controlled trial indicates that group therapy may affect the course of bipolar disorder. This study evaluated the effectiveness of adjunctive cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) to prevent recurrence of episodes in 50 euthymic patients with bipolar disorder, types I and II. Patients were followed up for at least 12 months in an outpatient service.
