Monday, October 18, 2004

Many Depressed Patients Have Bipolar Disorder
Medscape Medical News story - "Many depressed patients who fail to respond to repeated treatment with antidepressants may actually have bipolar disorder, according to new research. These patients are better treated with mood stabilizing drugs, possibly in combination with atypical neuroleptics. Clinicians who treat patients with depression are all too familiar with those who do not seem to respond to antidepressants or who respond for a while and then relapse. According to Verinder Sharma, MB, FRCP(C), many of these patients probably have bipolar disorder. Dr. Sharma is a psychiatrist at the Mood Disorders Program of St. Joseph's Health Care and a professor of psychiatry at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada. He presented his research into misdiagnosed bipolar disorder here at the 54th annual meeting of the Canadian Psychiatric Association." [Viewing Medscape resources requires registration, which is free].