The purpose of this paper is to understand the association between antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), patient characteristics, changes in seizure pattern and emergent psychiatric disorder, i.e. psychosis or affective disorder. To this end we carried out a retrospective casenote study on 89 patients who developed psychiatric symptoms during treatment with topiramate, vigabatrin or tiagabine. The psychi...

Some patients with severe mental disorders are refractory to psychotherapeutic or psychopharmacological interventions. We describe a patient with severe symptoms from the age of 16 to 44. Her illness is best described as a schizo-affective disorder. Several series of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) followed by maintenance once a week for more than six years has kept her out of hospital beds for...

Moore TH, Zammit S, Lingford-Hughes A, et al. Cannabis use and risk of psychotic or affective mental health outcomes: a systematic review. Lancet. 2007;370:319–328. http://dirwww.colorado.edu/alcohol/downloads/Cannabis_and_behavior.pdf "There was an increased risk of any psychotic outcome in individuals who had ever used cannabis...with greater risk in people who used cannabis most frequently. ...

This study, a retrospective chart review of 82 consecutive male inpatients, assessed the spectrum and prevalence of neuroleptic malignant syndrome. The prevalence of diagnosed neuroleptic malignant syndrome (2.4%) was greater than that generally reported. Eight additional patients manifested symptoms that abated without cessation of neuroleptic treatment. This suggests that neuroleptic malignan...

Temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), a subset of the seizure disorder family, represents a complex neuropsychiatric illness, where the neurological presentation may be complemented by varying severity of affective, behavioral, psychotic, or personality abnormalities, which, in turn, may not only lead to misdiagnosis, but also affect the management. This paper outlines a spectrum of mental health prese...

Background: Diabetes mellitus is a serious public health burden, accounting for substantial morbidity, disability, mortality, and health care cost; in addition to impaired physical health. Patients with diabetes frequently have comorbid affective illness; they are twice likely to be depressed as people without chronic diseases. Depression may be a risk factor for poor metabolic control in diabe...

Most important, antidepressants do not work as quickly or as effectively as the original monoamine hypothesis would suggest. Monoamine action also does not explain much of the clinical activity of diverse mood stabilizers (lithium [Eskalith, Lithobid], valproic acid [Depakote, Depakene], carbamazepine [Carbatrol, Tegretol]), and some atypical antipsychotics. In addition, the monoamine theory fa...

Lithium is a widely prescribed drug used for the treatment of bipolar affective illness. Previous reports on its effects on sperm motility and male fertility are conflicting. The effect of lithium on human sperm motility was examined in vitro using the modified transmembrane migration method. This technique takes account of the dilution of lithium that occurs during the incubation. Lithium inhi...

Citation: Thomas J, Grey I (2016) From Black Bile to the Bipolar Spectrum: A Historical Review of the Bipolar Affective Disorder Concept. Arch Depress Anxiety 2(1): 010-015. DOI: 10.17352/2455-5460.000008 010 a common origin in excessive ‘black bile’ [7,8]. Furthermore, he connected the concepts, viewing them –mania and melancholia as different aspects of the same illness with mania conceptuali...

This article is co-authored by a patient with colon cancer and his treating oncologist, who interact at two different levels: the instrumental and the emotional and affective one. The patient relates in detail his personal experiences struggling with cancer, including his fears, expectations, purposes, and attitudes through the most important events in the evolution of his illness. The professi...