i would very much like a copy of this article

Yes please! I would love to see the article. I've also got one that you might also find interesting: Sham device vs Inhert pill. You might have read it - basically, out of 2 placebo interventions (acupuncture which is an elaborate process) vs just taking a pill for chronic pain, it seems the acupuncture produced a larger decrease in pain. It seems this was due to the ritual itself: the theory goes that the patients appreciated the time and effort put into their accupuncture and so the placebo effect was stronger....

I was surprised to see this made it to Yahoo News. Antidepressants don't help bipolar depression.

Hi Philip,

Glad you're continuing your blog as normal.

This is unrelated to your post, but I got this in the email from Omegabrite , and I thought you and others will find it interesting. I didn't dig into details behind this, but the claim that researches found that high-EPA Omega-3 supplement can work as stand-alone treatment for children with bipolar disorder.

http://omegabrite.com/company/press/2007-04-02-effective-treatment-for-children-with-bipolar-disorder-add.html

Sekhar

The real point, though, and what might even underly the release of this information in a medical journal is that SSRIs facilitate and exacerbate mania (and probably psychosis). In other words they make that end of "bipolar" worse in a lot of people and even induce it in others who never had it before. That should have been the point of the article, not that it didn't "help" depression, which of course is also true.

I'd be very grateful for a copy of that paper. *Thank you*.

Sekhar,
I've heard that for years from parents, and that of all the fish caps that brand [Omegabrite]is the most used, and popular. The reason some parents like that brand, is because it didn't appear to shift mood, or increase agitation, where other fish oil caps did. I've also heard of one parent using salmon oil caps. Good idea to post that.

As blogger Philip Dawdy notes in his post, the media blinked. Again. However, bloggers took notice of the 26-week study by The New England Journal of Medicine, published 26 April 2007. The findings confirm what bipolars blog about—the hit and miss effectiveness of medications.

The poor media coverage of this landmark study underscores the importance of web social networks. As a society, we cannot depend on the media. It took notice, front-page, when mental illness ran amok recently, murdering and maiming. A media frenzy covered the Virginia Tech shootings.

However, Cho Seung-Hui was a victim, as well as those he hurt. He entered a mental facility on a mandatory seven-day hold, because he was in danger to himself and others. The health and school communities failed to take notice. And his neighbors failed to notice.

We as a community of human beings have a stake in treating the mentally ill and informing each other regarding scientific knowledge. If we do not collectively help those that have periods where they’re not in control of themselves, we must shoulder the burdens of their railings of madness.

Please send me a copy of the NEJM article that is no longer online.

Thank you.

SSRI's can be great drugs.

Unfortunately doctors don't test their patients for serotonin transporter (SERT) diregulation before or during treatment. But who has the time, money or access to a SPECT machine?

http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v30/n5/full/1300683a.html

These drugs (neurotransmitter targeted drugs) are ahead of their time, and should be use more judicially and with more caution by physicians given all the unknowns and high risk/side effect to benefit ratio.

But I wouldn't write them off, as these drugs will become more specialized in the future for specific brain disorders.

In fact their future looks more promising than their use in the medical field up to now.

zip-
I asked pdocs to do a SPECT in 1999. I hope one listens to me one day. I'm just a mom.