Posted on 09/08/2005 2:18:39 PM PDT by DameAutour
PITTSBURGH - Patients suffering from bipolar disorder who underwent therapy to help them maintain a regular daily routine and cope with stress were able to avoid relapses over a two-year period, a study has found.
The study, published in September's Archives of General Psychiatry, examined a therapy developed by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
Using what researchers dubbed interpersonal and social rhythm therapy, patients were taught how to keep to normal sleeping, eating and other daily routines. They also were shown how to anticipate and cope with stress just as a diabetic who would be taught, for example, how to cook and eat differently.
"This is really a disorder characterized by massive disturbances in the body's clock and in all the things the body's clock controls," said Dr. Ellen Frank, lead author of the study. "Their clocks need to be very carefully protected and we need to do everything we can to shore up and protect that fragile clock."
Bipolar disorder, also commonly referred to as manic depression, is a brain disorder in which sufferers experience cycles of mania, depression or mixed states. Treatment for the disorder varies by patient, but often involves some type of medication combined with therapy.
Frank, a professor of psychiatry and psychology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, said doctors for years have counseled bipolar sufferers about managing their lives but no one had ever systematically put that information together. She said social rhythm therapy does that, and also teaches patients to identify the triggers in their relationships with other people that can cause relapses.
In the study, 175 patients suffering from the most severe form of bipolar disorder were divided into several groups. All the patients were given medication for the disorder, but only some received interpersonal and social rhythm therapy.
The researchers found those who received the therapy were more likely to not have relapses of their illness during a two-year maintenance phase.
Dr. Gail Edelsohn, an associate professor of psychiatry at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, said sleep, especially, has a huge effect on those with mood disorders.
"This is a very important study because what's happened is that since we have a variety of medications which are extremely useful, I think the psychosocial interventions were prematurely cast aside," Edelsohn said.
Dr. Suzanne Vogel-Scibilia, president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said it's most important that bipolar sufferers have access to care, something that doesn't always happen because of the high costs of health care.
Not sleeping at night (and often feeling tense, depressed and/or manic and sick-tired during the day), having an insane appetite (sometimes frighteningly voracious and sometimes completely nonexistent for days or weeks at a time) makes it that much harder to successfully treat mental illness and live a normal life. Imagine having a medication that works best if you take it every morning, but the fact of the matter is that it is REALLY hit or miss whether you'll be up in the morning at all, no matter what time you tried to go to bed. I also know from personal experience that seemingly common stresses can throw off a bipolar person's entire existence. This makes it extremely hard to work, attend school, take care of children, live.
It can truly be a disabling disease, but medication isn't the only treatment available. It's miraculous and wonderful that doctors are finally starting to approach the practice of medicine more holistically, not just pills and hospitals, but helping people with stress and simple things like sleeping.
Boy, this story deeply depressed me for a moment, but then suddenly I feel like I can conquer the world.
This is potentially good news. The problem is getting someone depressed to want to stick to a routine.
Hmmmm, I guess I just need my clock cleaned! Oh great...I just had a vision of Drop Dead Fred saying "Oh, look, cobwebs", now I can't stop laughing!
I am not on meds much to the chagrin of my doctor, who gets onto me for drinking beer (only at night after work). Somehow, the thought of quitting drinking beer to go on hard drugs doesn't seem quite logical.
One additional element that is powerful in staving off highs and lows of a bi-polar disorder is a regular program of intense aerobic exercise like swimming, running, or biking (45 minutes plus daily is recommended). Not only does the endorphin high serve as a healthy form of self-medication, there is something about exercise that brings balance and a sense of durability.
Good news for those with loved one's especially those with children who tend to take their ups and downs and peer group approval/dissaproval pretty hard..
Thank you for posting this...
bttt
Whoopi...it's just one more bit of good advice for wholesome living that "bipolars" will ignore, and blame for their resultant bad behavior.
I am bi-polar and take full responsibility for my condition. In fact, anyone with bi-polar disorder that doesn't take charge is doomed to a medicated hell.
I commend you for your attitude. If find the norm to be " I expect to be treated as a rational individual, even when I'm not."
In my life, you can give me directions, or ask for help...not both. I find bipolars are the absolute worst for wanting to have both.
Oddly, it is both a blessing and a curse...but having it is not a choice.
Complaining about its symptoms is like complaining that midgets can't run fast or that old people use up resources but are still cranky.
One day, if you are lucky, you will have some "challenge" that is very difficult...and you will begin to understand.
OK. Here's what I don't understand. My daughter is bipolar (and I'm unipolar with a sleep disturbance). How do you establish these normal rythms when getting to sleep is so difficult? My daughter is medicated up the wazoo, so much so that her intellectual functioning is severely impacted. She's only seventeen, and she would love to go to school. But she can't read or write, and she has given up on the idea of education. (She has her GED, tried community college, but she flunked out.) She would love to lower the amount of medication she's on and hopefully be able to think better, but she has so much trouble sleeping. She has a major disregulation problem. Can any adult bipolars out there give her any advice or hope that she can get better? I am currently in the process of setting up testing for her with a neuropsychologist to assess her intellectual functioning.
That of course, is subject to debate.
Oddly, it is both a blessing and a curse...but having it is not a choice.
I hear the same thing from homosexuals, but I find people that try to claim scientific answers to philosophical questions unreasonable about other things, too.
Complaining about its symptoms is like complaining that midgets can't run fast or that old people use up resources but are still cranky.
Midgets and old people rarely protest not being treated like normal sized, middle age people.
One day, if you are lucky, you will have some "challenge" that is very difficult...and you will begin to understand.
One day, if you're lucky, you will recognize the fatuousness of such a statement. You might as well be a modern, metropolitan, redneck attempting to use the Bible to prove blacks and whites shouldn't marry.
Sorry, but I don't play with children. Go away and don't bother me again. I misjudged you.
Mighty imperious there, ain'tcha n00b?
I've no doubt you misjudge a great many things.
"I've never seen any depressed people at the fitness center." - G. Gordon Liddy
"Social Rhythm Therapy" = get your butt off the sofa and out from infront of the TV and hit the fitness center or pavement...lift and run! Real basic!
"I've never seen any depressed people at the fitness center." - G. Gordon Liddy
"Social Rhythm Therapy" = get your butt off the sofa and out from infront of the TV and hit the fitness center or pavement...lift and run! Real basic!
That never fails to work for me.
Very true!
BoomerBabe...see my post 5 above. It seems the answer is to get physical with aerobic and strength training. And working with a "good doctor" (not a pill pusher), to slowly get off the chemicals. Humans cannot live on chemicals. Fresh air and exercise and routine is imperative if bi-polars hope to get back to real life.
What do you think, JM76? 25 years of running have ruined my knees so I now recommend biking (or serious hiking in mountains) or swimming.
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