March 14, 2006

22 Percent of America Is Bipolar? WTF?

Here's one of the most spectacular screw-ups I've seen by a media outlet in a while, when it comes to citing statistics on a mental illness. In this piece, one of the authors claims that bipolar disorder affects 22 percent of the American populace and even cites a source for the number, the Mental Illness Research Association. That struck me as very odd. NIMH has long asserted that bipolar affects about 1 percent of the American populace, a number that I believe is understated since it is an old estimate (1992) and more recent estimates place it at around 2 percent to 3 percent of the populace. Pharma companies often claim that bipolar affects as much as 5 percent of America. Nice for marketing purposes I suppose. Thankfully, the MIRA website only claims that 22 percent of Americans have a diagnosable mental illness, not 22 percent have bipolar disorder. Big difference.

Posted by Philip Dawdy at March 14, 2006 07:38 AM
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OK, I can't help but comment on this newspaper. This is where my in laws live and this is their paper. These are the relatives that responded re:bipolar with my daughter: "I wonder how she got that?" or the latest..if this hospital she's in now cant help her nothing can." "You mean you drive to see her every day?" Now these comments come from my inlaws who one is on Prozac and declares she doesnt have depression. I dont think she knows why the doc added that med to her mountain of med bottles. Or how come Great Grandma lived upstairs a whole year with "sleeping sickness". Why did my daughter get this. Oh then there is the famous time they all went out to support me by saying they purchased TIME magazine when Young and Bipolar was on the cover. WOW. I hope I don't offend anyone from the midwest. I know that 2 out of that family have alzheimers, one is now dead, and the rest are all on insulin for diabetes...most likely all connected. But my daughter remains a mystery to them all. Well, actually, she was more acceptable to talk about (shhh mental health issues worse than c a n c e r)once the doc added a PDD dx,,well then they could say 'autism' outloud. Oh the calls Ive had. "What do we tell the others?" Well how about sending my daughter cards in the mail, a hospital is a hospital and her mind is as precious and important as her heart. So now I hope I do not offend anyone by saying what I say regarding my midwest relatives..I call it "midwest mentality". The fact that this newspaper has an article in it, means I will get the clipping in the mail soon. Accurate reporting from the Lawrence papers...hmmmm, time will tell. Some people just need to be educated beyond TIME magazine and Tom Cruises outburst on the Today show.

Posted by: Stephany at March 14, 2006 09:56 AM

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