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Bipolar Disorder:
A mood disorder
characterized by drastic mood swings, from major depressive episodes
to either manic or hypomanic episodes. A manic episode is characterized by high energy, inflated
self-esteem, grandiosity, a
reduced need for sleep, and racing thoughts. A hypomanic episode is
similar but lacks the intensity or severity of a manic episode.
Lithium:
Lithium is an alkali metal
appearing on the Table of Periodic Elements. It can be found in its
salt form, as lithium
chloride, in the Earth and dissolved in water. Its usefulness in the
treatment of mania was discovered by
an Australian psychiatrist in the 1940s, but it wasn't widely used during
the next decade because
psychiatrists considered it too toxic (Grilly, 1989). In a different
form (lithium carbonate), this element is
therapeutically effective in the treatment of bipolar disorder, but
produces side effects indicative of its toxic nature, such as nausea,
vomiting, diarrhea, and so forth. With time-release capsules,
lithium can be maintained at a fairly constant blood level around the
clock, minimizing its side effects.
Lithium controls a person's moods
by preventing the wild oscillations between mania and depression that
are
characteristic of bipolar disorder. How it acts and what part of the
brain it affects is not well understood. It is believed to work by altering the balance
of electrolytes in normal neurons, and by altering the functioning of many
different types of neurotransmitters (including serotonin, norepinephrine,
dopamine, acetylcholine, and GABA). For example, it decreases the
effects of norepinephrine and increases those of serotonin.
* Lithium
works for approximately seventy percent of all Bipolar patients, including
Anna.
Consult your doctor as to which
medication is best for you. *
"A
Disease? THANK GOD!"
"'Anna, I
have suspected for some time now that you may have a condition that I want
to discuss with you. I didn't make this
diagnosis before because it's a very difficult one to make. It is a
diagnosis that comes with a painful stigma,
and I didn't want to hang you with that and be wrong. Don't be frightened,
but I think you are manic-depressive.'
Even now, it's weird to tell you what my
reaction was. In my entire life I had heard the words
"manic-depressive" only three or four times--in some completely
unrelated way, certainly nothing to do
with me. But the
words just made sense. As my psychiatrist said them, I remember nodding my
head as if I had known this all along. They were the best two words I ever
heard. They described how it felt to be me."
--From A Brilliant Madness
* The hotline for the
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill is 1-800-950-NAMI *
Buy Call
Me Anna: The Autobiography of Patty Duke, which deals a lot with
Anna's personal bouts with
Bipolar
Disorder.
A
Brilliant Madness: Living With Manic-Depressive Illness tells not only
Anna's own struggles with the
illness, but
co-author Gloria Hochman's research about the disease in general. Places
to go for help are also
incorporated in
this book.
Buy other books on Bipolar
Disorder on Amazon.com
Buy Manic
Depression: Voices of an Illness and listen to Anna narrate this
Peabody Award-winning
audio tape.
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