Simple Blood Test May Help Diagnose Bipolar Disorder

adminDiagnosis, Psychobiology, Testing Leave a Comment

Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings, from manic highs to depressive lows. It can be a difficult condition to diagnose, as the symptoms can overlap with other conditions, such as depression, anxiety, ADHD, etcetera. A new study from the University of Cambridge suggests that some day a blood test could help to diagnose bipolar …

Family Risk of Bipolar 1 and 2 Disorders and Schizophrenia

Peter ForsterDiagnosis, Psychobiology Leave a Comment

Interesting study out of Taiwan that uses their fairly comprehensive population based data set to look at the relative risk of having different disorders in a family where one parent either has bipolar one or bipolar two disorder. I found this study interesting in that it suggests that bipolar one has a higher genetic loading for any kind of bipolar …

Brain Differences in Bipolar Disorder Type 1 Versus 2

Peter ForsterPsychobiology

A study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders in December 2014 looked at differences in the brains of people with Bipolar 1 versus Bipolar 2 disorders. It suggested that there might be quite significant differences in brain structure and function in bipolar one as opposed to bipolar 2 patients. The authors used 2 different techniques for imaging brains: one …