Treating Bipolar Disorder Early is Best

Diagnosing at a young age keeps condition from becoming debilitating, study says

WEDNESDAY, May 5, 2004 (HealthDayNews) -- Researchers have found early treatment of bipolar disorder is key to keeping the condition from advancing to debilitating levels.

Doctors studying college students with the condition discovered the patients improved significantly during treatment, according to results presented May 5 at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association in New York City.

Severe episodes of depression or mood elevation fell from 48 percent to 12 percent. Also, patients required an average of 2.4 medications, fewer than the adult average of four.

"It's possible for this group of patients to do very well," Dr. Terence Ketter of the Stanford University School of Medicine said in a prepared statement. "It's important to realize that these students can function well if they get accurate diagnosis and treatment."

It is particularly important to diagnose bipolar disorder and begin treatment before a patient has suffered many severe mood swings, Ketter said.

"It's much easier to treat patients who have had fewer than three episodes," he says. "After that, it gets incrementally more difficult to treat. If we don't let episodes occur, patients do exceedingly well."

More information

The National Institute of Mental Health has more about bipolar disorder.

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