Parents with bipolar disorder are taking part in a study that will give them the chance to follow a highly successful parenting skills programme.

The estimated number of youth with office visits with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder substantially increased between 1994 and 2003, while adult visits with a bipolar disorder diagnoses appeared to almost double, according to a report in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

The number of visits to a doctor’s office that resulted in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents has increased by 40 times over the last decade, reported researchers funded in part by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Melbourne mental health researchers have succeeded in halving the number of relapses experienced by people with bipolar disorder which strikes two in 100 Australians, accounts for 12 per cent of suicides each year and costs the country at least $1.5 billion annually.

People with bipolar disorder – or manic depression – suffer from an accelerated shrinking of their brain, researchers at the University of Edinburgh have found.

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are participating in a national study to evaluate lithium for the treatment of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents.

Looking into the brain is yielding vital clues to understanding, diagnosing and treating bipolar disorder, according to findings being presented today at the Seventh International Conference on Bipolar Disorder. Two studies, featured in a press briefing held at 12:15 p.m., Thursday, June 7, have helped to identify novel pathways and markers for diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Curidium Medica Plc, (LSE: CUR), the personalized medicine company focused on bringing the right drug to the right patient, announced on May 14th it has developed a blood diagnostic test that can sub-classify patients with schizophrenia/bipolar disorder into one of four subgroups.

The likelihood of developing bipolar disorder depends in part on the combined, small effects of variations in many different genes in the brain, none of which is powerful enough to cause the disease by itself, a new study shows. However, targeting the enzyme produced by one of these genes could lead to development of new, more effective medications.

Yale School of Medicine and University of Crete School of Medicine researchers report in Cell April 20 the first evidence of a molecular mechanism that dynamically alters the strength of higher brain network connections.

Neuroscientists at UCLA have shown that lithium, long the standard treatment for bipolar disorder, increases the amount of gray matter in the brains of patients with the illness.

A new study appearing in the latest issue of Epilepsia shows that a new drug called Eslicarbazepine (ESL) shows promise as a treatment for epilepsy patients whose symptoms remain uncontrolled with existing medications. A once-daily dose was shown to be most effective, offering patients added convenience as current treatments can involve several doses per day.