Atlas of Bipolar Disorders PDF

Preface

Atlas of Bipolar Disorders was written to serve as a source of information for professional mental health workers, students, individuals with bipolar illness, and their families. Experienced professionals will find the book useful for reviewing current best-practice concepts, and the advancements in single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scanning. The treatment algorithms, medication tables, and methods for assessing undiagnosed and often hidden mania are particularly helpful for people new to the mental health professions. Neurobiological issues of this illness have been summarized, and will be helpful for social workers, psychologists, nurses, and other allied health workers who may not be overly familiar with brain studies. Chapter 4 also provides a foundation for discussing the biology of bipolar illness with patients, families, and community leaders. It is not unusual to discover that teachers, religious leaders, employers, and neighbors define the illness as a choice or psychological weakness that with effort could be overcome. Therefore, the book can provide an important service by helping people with no neuroscience training to understand that bipolar illness is a brain disorder. In a few pages, the book systematically presents easy-to-read scientific evidence illustrating that bipolar illness is not related to family, personal choices, or social environments. Furthermore, the SPECT scan images help to document that this is an illness associated with abnormalities in the brain's structure and metabolism. The book is designed to help patients and families increase their understanding of symptoms, episodes, and medications, and improve their communications with mental health professionals. Individuals and families who are aware of medication issues and best-practice guidelines will be more educated consumers, and better able to communicate with professionals in a direct, specific, and productive manner.

In addition to offering professionals a scientific overview of bipolar disorders, the book also provides realistic clinical suggestions for planning and improving assessments and treatment interventions. Comprehensive outlines are provided for:

1) Enhancing patient and clinician relationships;

(2) Assessing undiagnosed and hidden episodes of hypomania, and mania;

(3) Prescribing medication interventions;

(4) Assessing postpartum depression and psychosis and educating families about postpartum depression;

(5) Delivering Systematic Eclectic Modular Therapy*.

Readers will also find two sets of questionnaires for tracking and assessing changes in symptoms and personal strengths. One set is specifically for assessing postpartum depression, and a different, but similar, set is used for monitoring bipolar symptoms.

The questionnaires may be photocopied and used without charge for patient care and research. However, they cannot be modified or published (to include electronic publications), or posted on the World Wide Web, without written permission from the author and publisher.

Whether your interest is early-onset child or adult bipolar illness, this book will provide an organized perspective of the disorders. The chapters have numerous references that will help students and other interested people to gain an in-depth knowledge of specific diagnostic, biological, and treatment issues. A combination of academic references and easy-to-read self-help books were purposely used as documentation throughout this book. Students will find the scientific references extremely helpful for writing lengthy term papers, while patients, families, and students will gain additional insights from the self-help books. For whatever reason you have picked up Atlas of Bipolar Disorders, it is sincerely hoped that the book will offer new insights into this complex illness, and be a constant resource for understanding treatment and patient-education issues. Finally, if one theme has to be identified for the book, it would be that scientific best-practice methods and careful diagnostic assessments cannot be accomplished without the practitioner involving, respecting, and carefully listening to the patient and each family member. Treatment of bipolar illness is best done from a team perspective that actively includes the patient and family.

*Systematic Eclectic Modular Therapy© is a specific method for linking intervention modules for treating serious mental disorders. The title, Systematic Eclectic Modular Therapy, and the specific treatment delivery concepts and components, are copyright protected by Edward H. Taylor. Methods are outlined in this book, and detailed steps will be available in a forthcoming book.