Just Another Manic Monday
I've edited a little of the articles I've already posted, but I'm going to post the new ones first and then those.
Just Another Manic Monday
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive disorder, can be compared to a slowly flickering light bulb. When the bulb is fully on, a person with bipolar disorder can appear to be completely normal. They can go about daily life and be happy and cheerful to others around them, but when the bulb begins to flicker, their behavior changes. Extreme mood changes occur and a person can encounter extremely high levels of energy, and the next minute be absorbed in an extreme low of depression. Bipolar disorder can interfere with someone’s life, by not allowing them to go about their daily activities or function normally.
Recently, scientists have been working on studies involving mice to find out more about this disorder and how it works. Their experiments began by injecting mice with amphetamines, but that did not work because it was not a genetic condition. They then moved on to using mutant mice that had a mutation in the gene that helped to control the body’s circadian rhythms. The scientists called the gene the Clock gene, and it basically works by controlling functions involving going to sleep, waking up, eating times, and by maintaining other body functions, like heart and blood functions, hormone levels, and body temperature. The mice were tested in many different ways, and in each situation appeared to be in the manic state that bipolar patients can occasionally be in. They determined that the mice were manic, and from there went about finding a way to treat them.
Many people have not encountered someone with bipolar disorder before. Do you think most people could endure or even understand that kind of lifestyle? I have been living with a person with bipolar disorder my entire life. My mom was diagnosed many years ago with the disorder, and it has always been an issue with my family. Her mood swings can occur as slowly as weekly, or as quickly as a few seconds. The aspect of it that bothers me the most is, that she does not realize that it is happening, or that some of her words or actions caused by the mood swings of the disorder are hurtful to me or anyone else in my family that she encounters. Her disorder has definitely caused a rift between us over the years. When I went home from college over winter break, my mom was working on cleaning out an extra room in our house that had originally been used for storage to make it into an office. She then found a small stack of thank you notes that I had written over the summer to thank people for graduation gifts I had received. Originally, I had placed the thank you notes on our kitchen counter for her to send them, but some I told her I had not addressed because I had no idea where to find the addresses. The next day, they were gone and she had said she had sent them, and so I had figured that she addressed the ones I did not. It turned out that the people she had hired to come and clean our house that day had hidden them somewhere in the extra room. When my mom had found them, instead of asking me about them, or saying anything to me about it, she came out of the room screaming at me. She called me a “horrible, disgusting person” among other things and thought that I had purposely hidden the cards. If you really think about the situation, why would I take the time to write out the notes and then hide them? Since that incident, we have not gotten along as well as we did beforehand, which is not great, as we never really had gotten along very well.
Living with someone with bipolar disorder can be difficult. In the mutated mice study, they treated the mice with lithium, which is used to regulate the circadian clock and stabilize moods. They were given the medicine for ten days, and began to exhibit behaviors that were similar to mice without the gene mutation. By observing how the lithium specifically affected the mice, scientists have realized that they may be able to discover more about how mood stabilizers work and be able to find other drugs in the future that are able to help people with bipolar disorder. The researchers are now studying other genes that are involved in the function of the circadian clock to determine if they can make the mice experience the depressive state of bipolar disorder.
For more information on this subject, visit http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa017&articleID=708AAAE6-E7F2-99DF-35D643E46E5A831D or http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/tc/Bipolar-Disorder-Topic-Overview.
Just Another Manic Monday
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive disorder, can be compared to a slowly flickering light bulb. When the bulb is fully on, a person with bipolar disorder can appear to be completely normal. They can go about daily life and be happy and cheerful to others around them, but when the bulb begins to flicker, their behavior changes. Extreme mood changes occur and a person can encounter extremely high levels of energy, and the next minute be absorbed in an extreme low of depression. Bipolar disorder can interfere with someone’s life, by not allowing them to go about their daily activities or function normally.
Recently, scientists have been working on studies involving mice to find out more about this disorder and how it works. Their experiments began by injecting mice with amphetamines, but that did not work because it was not a genetic condition. They then moved on to using mutant mice that had a mutation in the gene that helped to control the body’s circadian rhythms. The scientists called the gene the Clock gene, and it basically works by controlling functions involving going to sleep, waking up, eating times, and by maintaining other body functions, like heart and blood functions, hormone levels, and body temperature. The mice were tested in many different ways, and in each situation appeared to be in the manic state that bipolar patients can occasionally be in. They determined that the mice were manic, and from there went about finding a way to treat them.
Many people have not encountered someone with bipolar disorder before. Do you think most people could endure or even understand that kind of lifestyle? I have been living with a person with bipolar disorder my entire life. My mom was diagnosed many years ago with the disorder, and it has always been an issue with my family. Her mood swings can occur as slowly as weekly, or as quickly as a few seconds. The aspect of it that bothers me the most is, that she does not realize that it is happening, or that some of her words or actions caused by the mood swings of the disorder are hurtful to me or anyone else in my family that she encounters. Her disorder has definitely caused a rift between us over the years. When I went home from college over winter break, my mom was working on cleaning out an extra room in our house that had originally been used for storage to make it into an office. She then found a small stack of thank you notes that I had written over the summer to thank people for graduation gifts I had received. Originally, I had placed the thank you notes on our kitchen counter for her to send them, but some I told her I had not addressed because I had no idea where to find the addresses. The next day, they were gone and she had said she had sent them, and so I had figured that she addressed the ones I did not. It turned out that the people she had hired to come and clean our house that day had hidden them somewhere in the extra room. When my mom had found them, instead of asking me about them, or saying anything to me about it, she came out of the room screaming at me. She called me a “horrible, disgusting person” among other things and thought that I had purposely hidden the cards. If you really think about the situation, why would I take the time to write out the notes and then hide them? Since that incident, we have not gotten along as well as we did beforehand, which is not great, as we never really had gotten along very well.
Living with someone with bipolar disorder can be difficult. In the mutated mice study, they treated the mice with lithium, which is used to regulate the circadian clock and stabilize moods. They were given the medicine for ten days, and began to exhibit behaviors that were similar to mice without the gene mutation. By observing how the lithium specifically affected the mice, scientists have realized that they may be able to discover more about how mood stabilizers work and be able to find other drugs in the future that are able to help people with bipolar disorder. The researchers are now studying other genes that are involved in the function of the circadian clock to determine if they can make the mice experience the depressive state of bipolar disorder.
For more information on this subject, visit http://scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa017&articleID=708AAAE6-E7F2-99DF-35D643E46E5A831D or http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/tc/Bipolar-Disorder-Topic-Overview.