Jayson Blair

Someone came to me this week to discuss school, her career and her moods. She talked about how her father had been diagnosed years ago with bipolar disorder and toward the end of our conversation mentioned that a psychiatrist had diagnosed her with "bipolar lite" soon after she stopped using cocaine and ecstasy. I found it curious. She was not closed to the idea of having bipolar, but added that she stopped treatment because of the mood stablizing medications she was on just seemed to flatten her and numb her emotions. I went through the symptoms of mania -- rapid speech, racing thoughts, decreased need for sleep, hyper-sexuality, impulse-control, grandiosity and increased interest in goal-directed activities. She said "no" to virtually everyone of them, outside of the context of times when she was abusing substances. What about psychotic symptoms, which can occur in mania and deep depressions, and can lessen the likelihood of other disorders? Not a one of them, n...

I often get questions about what can be done, in addition to medical therapies, to help with depression. Here are a couple of recommendations. First and foremost, regular and full sleep is perhaps the most important factor in preventing manic episodes and it has been shown to contribute to preventing depressive relapses. Another excellent tool is exercise, particularly exercise that promotes overall wellness and meditation, such as yoga. The fitness center website at McLean Hospital in Cambridge, Mass. has two good articles on the topic . In addition, adding omega-3 fatty acids -- found in fish and fish oil, as well as flax seed oil -- can be of great assistance. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry has a nice piece on omega-3s.