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This Week
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9/11 Centreville Bipolar Support Group II. 6400 Old Centreville
Road, Centreville, VA 20121, 7:30 p.m.
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9/11 Loved Ones Support Group. 14369 Round Lick Lane, Centreville , VA 20120. 7 p.m.
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9/12 Woodbridge Support Group. 15941 Donald Curtis Drive, Woodbridge, VA 22191, 7:30 p.m.
9/17 Centreville Bipolar Support
Group I
9/18 Centreville Bipolar Support
Group II
9/19 Woodbridge Bipolar Support Group
Centreville
Woodbridge
Ashburn
Loved Ones
Hospital Program
This is the web page for our program to help
those in the hospital and their loved ones
National
DBSA
The web page for the national Depression Bipolar
Support Alliance
Publications
DBSA publications for those with mood disorders
and their loved ones
Suicide
Links to suicide prevention hotlines and
resources
Support Groups
Links to our Loved Ones, Ashburn, Centreville
and Woodbridge meetings
http://www.dbsanova.org
bipolarhope@dbsanova.org
The news in this newsletter is
brought to you from novabipolarhappens.blogspot.com |
Diagnosis of bipolar has risen fortyfold in children and adolescents
The diagnosis
of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents has risen fortyfold since
1994, according to a study released Monday. But researchers partly attributed
the dramatic rise to doctors over-diagnosing the serious psychiatric
disorder.
The report in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry said bipolar
disorder was found in 1,003 of every 100,000 office visits from children and
adolescents in 2002-03, compared with 25 of 100,000 office visits in 1994-95.
The diagnosis of bipolar disorder among adults increased twofold during the
same period, researchers said.
The study didn't investigate the reasons for the sudden rise in bipolar cases
among children and adolescents. A book published in 2000, "The Bipolar
Child," made the controversial assertion that one-third to one-half of
children with depression had bipolar disorder.
Bipolar focused therapy not widely available
Rosenthal to discuss seasonal affective disorder this week
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Norman E. Rosenthal, MD, discussed how light therapy is as effective as
antidepressant therapy at a discussion last Thursday hosted by
DBSA-National Capital Area. In the discussion at George Washington University Hospital, Dr. Rosenthal said that light therapy helps "normal
people" feel better, too.
In Seasonal Affective Disorder, SAD, there's a pattern of fall and winter
depressions. Spring and summer tend to be nondepressed. No
recurring social or psyhological reason explains the recurrent winter
depression in SAD.
Adolescents and children are sensitive to light, too. After
puberty, prevalence of SAD in young people reaches adult levels.
SAD triples after puberty in girls. Women are afflicted with SAD at a
ratio of 3:2 with men. Women in their reproductive years are the most
sensitive to changes in light.
Depressions are long lasting...up to five months with this condition!
Wellbutrin XL given in advance of symptoms has been proven effective
against SAD. Wellbutrin is FDA approved for SAD now.
During Dr. Rosenthal's decades researching SAD at NIMH, 1979-1999, he was
pleased to recruit 600 patients. Now
SAD research at NIMH is shut down. Government funding for SAD
research has shriveled.
In the last few years with pharmaceutical companies backing him up,
Rosenthal recruited 2000 patients. At NIMH, it took him 3X as long to
recruit a fraction of that number. Money matters.
Seasonal depression is widely unrecognized even by experienced clinicians.
It is underdiagnosed and undertreated in spite of tremendous media
attention. Seasonal depressions tend to be atypical...not only about
sadness and anxiety.
More information:
http://dbsanova.org/news.html |
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