ey Words: Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, Behavioral Approach System (BAS), Cognitive Styles e associa relevant and non-BAS-relevant cognitive styles with bipolar spectrum disorders. Controlling for depressive and hypomanic/manic symptoms, 195 individuals with bipolar spectrum disorders sco higher than 194 demographically matched normal controls on BAS sensitivity and BAS-relevant cogni dimensions o...

On the basis of the behavioral approach system (BAS) dysregulation theory of bipolar disorder, this study examined the relation between occurrence of a BAS activation-relevant life event--goal striving--and onset of hypomanic and depressive episodes and symptoms. In particular, the authors examined the relation between preparing for and completing final exams (a goal-striving event) and onset o...

The relative misdiagnosis and underdiagnosis of bipolar disorder is due in part to the 'soft' symptoms of bipolarity that characterize patients with non-classical bipolar disorder. While no agreement has been reached on the term for this group of patients, the most common classification used is 'bipolar spectrum', which shifts the emphasis in diagnosis away from polarity and toward other diagno...

The mixed states are the most serious clinical state in the bipolar spectrum, having the major risk of sucidality among all sub-types of the spectrum. The aim of this study is to help diagnosis and treatment of the patients having bipolar disorder mixed state, giving to psychiatrists and physicians a new efficacy rating scale focusing on this illness.

Bipolar disorder is a severe, lifelong mood disorder for which little is currently understood of the genetic mechanisms underlying risk. By examining related dimensional phenotypes, we may further our understanding of the disorder. Creativity has a historical connection with the bipolar spectrum and is particularly enhanced among unaffected first-degree relatives and those with bipolar spectrum...

OBJECTIVE To review new perspectives on diagnosis, clinical features, epidemiology, and treatment of bipolar II and related disorders. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE Articles were identified by searching MEDLINE and ClinPSYCH from January 1994 to August 2001 using the key words bipolar disorder, type II or 2; hypomania; spectrum; or variants. Reference lists from articles were reviewed. Overall, the qua...

We review longitudinal predictors, primarily psychosocial, of the onset, course, and expression of bipolar spectrum disorders. We organize our review along a proximal - distal continuum, discussing the most proximal (i.e., prodromes) predictors of bipolar episodes first, then recent environmental (i.e., life events) predictors of bipolar symptoms and episodes next, followed by more distal psych...