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Robert De Niro wasn't acting when he broke down in sobs on Katie Couric's day time talk show Monday. The usually tough-guy actor was a guest on Katie to discuss the hit film Silver Linings Playbook with director David O. Russell and co-star Bradley Cooper. When asked about the film's premise - that of a bipolar character trying in vain to fit in - The Goodfellas actor began to cry. 'Did you feel a greater responsibility about doing a film that David had so much personally invested in?' the anchor asked, following up on a question asked of Russell. 'Of...

Philadelphia, PA, 16 February 2011 - Lithium, introduced in the late 1940's, was the first "wonder drug" in psychiatry. It was the first medication treatment for the manic and depressive episodes of bipolar disorder and it remains among one of the most effective treatments for this disorder. In the past 15 years, as molecular mechanisms underlying the treatment of bipolar disorder began to emerge, basic research studies conducted in animals began to identify neuroprotective and perhaps neurotrophic effects of this important medication. The identification of these molecular actions of lithium coincided with the discovery of regional brain volume deficits in...

The number of young Americans diagnosed with bipolar disorder has risen dramatically in recent years, according to a new study. This increase highlights the need for "reliability studies" to determine the accuracy of diagnoses of child and adolescent bipolar disorder, conclude the researchers in a report in the latest issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric illness that typically involves periods of mania (abnormally elevated mood) and depression. Dr. Mark Olfson, from Columbia University, New York and New York State Psychiatric Institute, and colleagues compared increases between 1994-1995 and 2002-2003 in office visits that culminated...

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,...

Last of three articles John Zeber recently examined one of the nation's largest databases of psychiatric cases to evaluate how doctors diagnose schizophrenia, a disorder that often portends years of powerful brain-altering drugs, social ostracism and forced hospitalizations. Although schizophrenia has been shown to affect all ethnic groups at the same rate, the scientist found that blacks in the United States were more than four times as likely to be diagnosed with the disorder as whites. Hispanics were more than three times as likely to be diagnosed as whites. Zeber, who studies quality, cost and access issues for the U.S....

<p>March 19, 2003 -- Ted Turner says he tried to go to Baghdad to cover the war live for CNN but wasn't allowed. Turner, the largest shareholder of CNN parent AOL Time Warner, volunteered for dangerous war-zone duty, but said his CNN executives believed he couldn't handle it.</p>