SHARING BIPOLAR.com

• Overview
• Breastfeeding
• Medication and conception

Overview

• All four guidelines (BAP, CANMAT, NICE, and SIGN) concur that bipolar disorder has significant implications for reproductive health issues, particularly in relation to the teratogenetic risk caused by the medications being taken for the disorder.
• The figures published in the BAP guideline about the ‘risk of major congenital malformations’ differ slightly from those published in the SIGN guideline (BAP: the risk ‘in the general population is surprisingly high at 2% to 4%’; SIGN: ‘The overall risk of major fetal malformation in any pregnancy of approximately 2% is increased two or three-fold in women taking a single anticonvulsant drug’). The CANMAT and NICE guidelines do not give these statistics.
• Most significantly, the BAP guideline details that lithium and valproate can be continued during pregnancy, although preferably in slow-release formulations. The CANMAT guideline also argues that mothers can continue to take lithium as a mood-stabilizer, instead of other anticonvulsants. SIGN concurs with both guidelines in relation to lithium, yet mentions that ‘Valproate should be avoided as a mood stabilizer in pregnancy.’ NICE gives different advice: ‘Do not routinely prescribe for pregnant women: valproate… [or] lithium’, unless the woman experiences severe mania. In this case, ECT and lithium are preferred over valproate.
• SIGN is the only guideline which mentions that: ‘Benzodiazepines should be avoided in the first trimester of pregnancy’.
• BAP and NICE agree that ECT can be ‘safely administered to pregnant women’. SIGN and CANMAT do not mention ECT.

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Cardiff University is undertaking Bipolar Disorder research in close collaboration with their colleagues at Birmingham University (led by Dr Lisa Jones). Members of their team are based in both centres.

Over 3000 people have already participated in our Bipolar Disorder Study and it is now the largest such study anywhere in the world. We are, however, still looking for more volunteers to help us with our research – every additional person who helps will bring the possibility of much-needed scientific advances nearer. If you suffer with bipolar disorder and would like to help by participating in our research, please contact them… Read the rest of this entry »

A new drug is set to revolutionise the lives of manic depressives who, until now, have had to rely on medication that offers only a temporary solution. For decades, psychiatrists have struggled to control the condition that affects more than half a million people in the UK.

Sufferers experience dramatic mood swings, which in some cases can lead to suicide. Zyprexa is one of the newer anti-psychotic drugs or mood enhancers and works by altering the brain chemistry to adjust imbalances. It is the first drug to have an impact on the symptoms of manic depression since the introduction of lithium more than 50 years ago. Read the rest of this entry »