Living a normal life: bipolar disorder

Professor James Potash explains that most individuals with bipolar disorder lead normal lives and respond well to lithium medication.

Yes, it is absolutely very possible for people with bipolar disorder to live normal lives, in fact roughly two-thirds of people with bipolar disorder respond extremely well to treatment. Lithium is still the medication that is most likely to help people with bipolar disorder, although there are a number of other medicines that are helpful too. The majority of people who have bipolar disorder are well most of the time; it’s a minority, maybe 15 percent who are chronically ill and who are quite disabled by the illness.

bipolar disorder, lithium, normal life, james, potash

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1986. Lithium and bipolar disorder

Professor James Potash discusses two hypotheses on how lithium, which has been successfully used to treat bipolar disorder for many years, may affect the brain.

  • ID: 1986
  • Source: G2C

1989. The neuropathology of depression and bipolar disorder

Professor James Potash discusses studies that show reductions in hippocampal volume in people with depression and abnormalities in cingulate areas in patients with bipolar disorder.

  • ID: 1989
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1994. Bipolar disorder: managing medications

Professor James Potash explains that, for many bipolar disorder patients, managing medications can be difficult.

  • ID: 1994
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1982. The diathesis-stress model and bipolar disorder

Professor James Potash describes how the diathesis-stress model can be used to understand interactions between genes and the environment. He refers specifically to bipolar disorder.

  • ID: 1982
  • Source: G2C

1976. Cyclicity in bipolar disorder

Professor James Potash explains that bipolar disorder is episodic: people get ill, then they get well again and then the illness may come back again at a later date.

  • ID: 1976
  • Source: G2C

1981. Childhood bipolar disorder - brain abnormalities

Professor James Potash discusses the dramatic increase in the rates of diagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder, which has risen forty-fold in recent years.

  • ID: 1981
  • Source: G2C

1980. Endophenotypes for bipolar disorder

Professor James Potash describes how endophenotypes are used to study bipolar disorder. Endophenotypes are essentially subtypes of larger symptoms.

  • ID: 1980
  • Source: G2C

2085. Lithium: how it might protect the brain

Professor Wayne Drevets discusses ways in which lithium may affect bipolar disorder. It affects multiple neurotransmitter systems and may protect brain structures that are atrophied in bipolar disorder.

  • ID: 2085
  • Source: G2C

1978. Mania and disinhibition

Professor James Potash explains that people who are manic or hypomanic can be disinhibited - they have little inhibition or impulse control.

  • ID: 1978
  • Source: G2C

1979. Linkage and association studies

Professor James Potash describes the difference between linkage and association studies, which are two ways of locating candidate genes. These are discussed in reference to bipolar disorder,

  • ID: 1979
  • Source: G2C