All In The Brain, Right?

A bit of research that's been quietly batted about the media the past week--OK, it's hardly been covered--asserts that researchers at Yale University were able to track the course of bipolar disorder in the brains of children and teens. The results were presented as if researchers had never before realized that bipolar happened in teens and that this was a major breakthrough. Um, whatever. I guess it's researchers' and their press handlers' jobs to make every bit of research sound world-changing even when it's obvious to just about everyone else. The researchers claim, too, that the course of the disorder and brain changes are slowed by the use of mood stabilizers.

What galls me about the study is the following claim by one of the researchers: "Research to understand bipolar disorder in youths is especially important because of their high risk for suicide." That's an interesting point since the rate of teen suicide has thankfully dropped dramatically over the last decade (about a 35 percent drop), while it continues to rage in adult men at approximately twice the rate as among teens. (The female suicide rate is about one-fourth what it is among men.) But, then, that's the research funding game: paint whatever ailment as a threat to youth, regardless of its effects among others, and in come research grants and media attention.