Posted by Shawn. T. on October 1, 2002, at 5:05:06
In reply to What is rapid cycling??, posted by sienna on September 27, 2002, at 19:16:26
The most widely accepted standards for hypomania have been published in DSM IV, which includes the guidelines that your psychologist should be following. See http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/bip2dis.htm for the DSM IV entry for bipolar II disorder, which includes links to diagnostic criteria for mania and hypomania.
Rapid cycling has been defined as four or more affective episodes within one year of illness. I don't believe that this is the definition that most people on this board would be familiar with, however. So called 'ultra-rapid cycling' has been associated with the low activity allele of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene. COMT is involved in the breakdown of catecholamines in the brain. Catecholamines include dopamine, noradrenaline (aka norepinephrine), and adrenaline (aka epinephrine). Thus, low activity of the COMT gene involves increased levels of dopamine, noradrenaline, and adrenaline in the brain. My personal feeling is that an alteration of the COMT gene by itself may not contribute significantly to rapid cycling bipolar affective disorder, although the risk increases a great deal when combined with other genetic variations associated with bipolar disorder. I find it interesting that COMT gene alterations and serotonin reuptake inhibitor variations in combination have been associated with bipolar disorder without panic disorder. So the point of all this is that people with rapid cycling bipolar disorder are going to see especially effective treatments available sometime this decade. Having genetic evidence available certainly makes tailoring specific treatment options much less difficult.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=9702744&dopt=Abstracthttp://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/159/1/23?ijkey=n9trvnLleVd8k
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=8886163&dopt=Abstract
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9702745&dopt=Abstract
poster:Shawn. T.
thread:121292
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020930/msgs/121774.html