• Basic self care of bipolar disorder

• Non-medication approaches: start with a good book
• Moving toward mood-improving behaviors
• What if I have thoughts about suicide?
• "Let’s Make a Deal": the risk of changing medications

• Destabilizing factors

• Are steroid medications really bad?
• How much alcohol is ok?
• What are other destabilizing factors
• Does bipolar disorder get worse over time? (the "kindling theory") 

• More on mood stabilizer use

• Basic problems and solutions
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome: is this really a risk?
• What labs, how often, are necessary during followup?
• What about other mood stabilizers?
• I don't want to take a lot of medication!

• Specific non-medication approaches

• Light therapy (or in this case, dark therapy)
• What is the role of exercise in bipolar disorder treatment?
• What is "Social Rhythm Therapy"?
• Is ECT effective in Bipolar II?
• Can diet do anything? 

Non-medication approaches: Start with a good book or two for more than you can read sitting here!

Of the many books out there on bipolar disorder, several have sections devoted specifically to non-medication approaches to treatment.  This is rather lengthy subject which really needs to be understood.  Although for most people, medications are the backbone of treatment, these non-medication approaches are the "skin", so to speak: they hold everything together and without them, you're going to have a tough time.  If you have the luxury of a local bookstore, flip through all these before you buy, to see which fits your needs best.  

Common themes in these books, as you can tell from the chapter headings:  

1. Maintain a regular daily schedule -- especially sleep hours, exposure to light, and perhaps even to darkness
2. Get exercise nearly every single day: clearly it's an antidepressant, and it probably also has mood stabilizing effects
3. Have a social support system: family, or friends, or a therapist; preferably all of the above if possible
4. Have a plan for when you're having a lot of symptoms
5. Have a means for figuring out what's you, and what's your bipolar disorder (many use a therapist for this)
6. Work, or volunteer, or have some other focus outside yourself

Moving toward mood-improving behaviors

There are three types of psychotherapy which have been shown in randomized trials to be effective. In mild to moderate depression, they are as effective as medication, and possibly more likely to maintain benefits over time.^{Frank and Thase} They are: cognitive, behavioral (these two are often combined), and interpersonal psychotherapy.

Here are some key parts of these therapies, which you can apply yourself (organized by John Christensen, Ph.D., who teaches behavioral health skills in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Oregon Health Sciences University; used with gratitude):

S = Schedule (activities) — Behavioral
P = Pleasurable Activities — Behavioral
E = Exercise — Behavioral
A = Assertiveness — Interpersonal
K = Kind Thoughts About You — Cognitive

Schedule: make a plan now and have a calendar or log for behaviors you intend to pursue. Here is a sample log you can change to suit you:

Day Time of Day Activity planned With whom? Where? Planning needed

When you make a log like this, and keep it up to date, you have a good record of exactly what you have done for your own health. If you are trying to increase your activity, this log could show you whether you are making progress! Even if you can see a small increase, this can be a big "boost", to see that you are able to move yourself forward. It may give you the motivation and energy to move further yet.

Pleasurable: as many people experience loss of pleasure due to their mood state, they can stop arranging for activities that used to provide enjoyment, leading to a vicious downward spiral. Many people can reverse this trend, though it’s slow at first, by deliberately scheduling pleasurable activities. In the beginning you’ll have to force yourself, and it won’t be fun like it used to. But with some repetition, you might notice a hint of improvement, and if you do, take advantage of that by trying to do a little more. That’s how some people turn the spiral around, into a slowly improving one.

Exercise may have a mood stabilizing effect in bipolar disorder. It clearly has an antidepressant effect, beating Zoloft in a recent randomized trial.^Babyak   Exercise has not been shown to cause mania, unlike all available antidepressant approaches (including light therapy, St. John's Wort, SAM-e; the only exception is lithium).  You are probably aware of the many health benefits of regular physical activity.   I tell patients, "if these benefits could be put in a pill, everyone would be taking it!". Obviously the hard part is getting yourself to do it.  There's even some evidence that people who started out (in college) with good mental health are the ones who exercise later in life.^Siegler  So, trying to do this exercise thing is an extremely difficult challenge, especially if you have symptoms now, and you may need some help (from friends, family, therapist, pastor, doctor).

 Make a plan and a chart like this:

Day Time of Day Type of exercise How Long? Intensity 1-5 How I felt before (1-10) After (1-10)

Start with just a little bit. Walking is usually a good starting place. Rate your mood on a scale of 1-10, where 1 is the worst you get, and 10 is the best, before and after. See your primary care physician if you have been very inactive, before you begin, for an okay and more guidelines.

Assertiveness means asking for what you want. When two people are in conflict over something, four things can happen:

1. I win, you lose.
2. You win, I lose.
3. We both lose.
4. We both win.

Assertiveness means trying to get what you want, where hopefully the other person still gets what he/she wants. There is a lovely book about negotiating skills by Harvard experts on this topic,^{Fisher and Ury} but there are also many "self-help" books about this in your local bookstore. Many people with mood problems have lost, or never had, good assertiveness skills. A good therapist (e.g. MSW, LCSW, Ph.D.) can often help a lot with this.

Kind thoughts about you: many people with mood problems can be extremely unrealistic in their view of themselves. They minimize their skills while magnifying their weaknesses; inflating small errors into major gaffs; overlooking their successes, and so forth. "Cognitive therapy" tries to help people be realistic in their view of themselves, calling attention to such "cognitive errors". In most cases, this eventually means treating oneself as one would likely treat others: with kind thoughts, rather than harsh negative assessments. At one level, this is "think positive", but at a more sophisticated level, it is "think fair/realistic/evidence-based". A good book about cognitive techniques is Feeling Good^Burns (a friend of mine says "great book, terrible title"). If you’re really motivated, you may be able to work through this book on your own. It costs less than an insurance co-pay ($6.00 on line, last look). This book contains all the ingredients of good cognitive therapy (written by a master). However, most people do this kind of work with a therapist who knows the technique.

What if I have thoughts about suicide?

If you are not just thinking about it but actually planning something and afraid you might act on that plan, click here. If you’re still afraid you’ll act, it’s time to call 911 unless you have an easier way to get yourself safe now.

Thoughts are thoughts. You can think about suicide, but if you don’t act about suicide, you’ll stay alive long enough to find out if there’s a treatment for you out there. So thinking about it is okay, if that’s all that ever happens. Most people with severe bipolar symptoms do indeed think about suicide, sometimes a lot. If you’d like to hear another person’s thoughts about this, try this site.^Carol

Door #1, Door #2: The "Let’s Make a Deal" analogy of medication change risk

For people with only minor signs of bipolar disorder, or some improvement on a medication, but not enough, I almost always invoke the old TV show "Let’s Make a Deal" (remember Monty Hall? "oh, Monty, Monty!"). In it, participants were offered the option of giving up what they had already won, to take some unknown prize. It could be a Cadillac, or a pile of newspaper. Participants were not able to "go back" to what they had given up for door #1 or door #2.

Similarly, some people may not be able to go back to the gains a previous medication has offered. They may move to a different illness stage in the process (for more on this, see "Does bipolar disorder get worse over time?"). They should make the choice of a new medication approach with this risk in mind. Obviously, to take this risk, something really needs to be "broke" and require "fixing"!

Are steroids really bad? (revised 12/2006)

"Steroids" include prednisone, cortisone, and several other forms, even including steroid eye drops (and I had one patient who did not stabilize until he stopped those drops!). They are used for everything from poison oak to severe asthma, to decrease immune system response when the response itself is causing problems.

The risk of making mood unstable with steroid medications has been clearly described and repeatedly observed.^Brown  How frequently does this occur?  In one study of people with no prior history of mood symptoms,  2% got "mental disturbance" with a low dosage (prednisone equivalent less than 10 mg in most of the subjects).  In this study, only severe psychiatric disturbance was counted.   In another study which used a very high dose (prednisone equivalent of 120 mg), the authors found 26% with manic symptoms and 10% with depression symptoms during the 8 days of treatment.  These and several other studies are reviewed in Brown, 1999.

Testosterone can induce mania or hypomania, including in about 10% of volunteer men.^Pope  Obviously I don’t get to see the many patients who have done fine on predisone for their poison oak, but I have seen multiple patients who have had severe manic episodes when given steroids by their (well-meaning) primary care physician.  There are reports of a testosterone patch^Kline and dihydroepiandosterone (DHEA, available in health food stores)^Markowitz inducing manic episodes. 

If it becomes clear through treatment that you do indeed have a bipolar variation, be very, very cautious about using any steroid medication. Many physicians are not aware of the risk this poses in bipolar disorder (causing quite severe symptoms of the type you went on mood stabilizers to treat!) So if you think the medication you are being offered is a steroid, politely explain your concern (referring the doctor here, if needed; here are some thoughts about talking with doctors). If there are no treatment options other than steroids, you will probably need more mood stabilizer while taking the them.

What about steroid inhalers for asthma, or steroid nasal sprays for allergies?  There are several case reports of inhaled steroids causing symptoms.  Since these are widely used medications, I'll take the liberty here to reproduce a paragraph from a review you might have trouble finding.^Brown  As you can see, the "bottom line" is that inhaled steroids can be a problem, but probably not very often:   

There are several case reports that suggest psychiatric disturbances may occasionally occur with steroid inhalers. A 5-year-old child with asthma developed symptoms of mania including agitation, irritability, and insomnia 2 days following the addition of inhaled budesonide at 200 µg/day.  The psychiatric symptoms observed in the child resolved with dose reduction.  Phelan found that a 69-year-old man who had previously developed protracted manic symptoms with oral prednisolone became euphoric with pressured speech and visual hallucinations after receiving 400 µg/day of inhaled beclomethasone for 3 weeks. Similarly, a bipolar disorder patient who was stable on lithium therapy promptly developed severe mania requiring hospitalization after the addition of a beclomethasone inhaler (eg, 1 puff prn) for asthmatic symptoms.  Inhaled corticosteroids are widely used, thus, the paucity of case reports of psychiatric symptoms associated with their use suggests that severe reactions are uncommon. No study, however, has formally examined the global psychiatric side effects of inhaled steroid use, therefore the incidence of mild to moderate mood changes is unknown.

(Update 12/2006: just did a quick search for anything new; nothing much, just this article by one of the same research groups, just showing that even low doses for a short while can have an impact on mood: Brown 2002). 

How much alcohol is ok?

Zero would be nice. However, zero forever is more than most people think they can realistically do. Still, I strongly suggest that you try 1-2 months with no alcohol at all, so that you can then evaluate how destabilizing alcohol is for you personally, and in what amounts. Most people find that about 1 drink per week does not affect them, but that more than one at a time, or more than one per week total, does. You must also be aware that the mood stabilizer medications will often make just one drink a lot more powerful. If you do drink while on these medications, don’t drive or do things where judgement and performance are crucial (the example that always seems to be listed is "operate heavy machinery", but using a kitchen slicer counts too!)

If you are not getting better with mood stabilizers but are still drinking, it’s time to start the trial of these medications over again, while clean and sober. Zero alcohol is a must for people whose mood remains unstable, while looking for an effective treatment.

What are other destabilizing factors?

You have already encountered the major recognized destabilizing factors: antidepressants, alcohol, and steroids. Now for the more subtle ones.

Sleep deprivation is pro-manic, even in people without "bipolar disorder". Do you know that feeling you get the middle of the day after a night up much too late? The giddy, loose, hilarious, on the edge feelings? And how a few hours later it’s switching into irritability, disorganization, anxiety? Just a single night of sleep loss can do that (e.g. doctors know this from being on call). For people with bipolar variations, night after night of too little sleep is clearly part of the whole problem. Generally, when people get better they sleep much better.

In fact, I use sleep as one of the best single markers of whether a patient has enough mood stabilizer: when they do, they will sleep well (6-8 hours, unbroken or able easily to go back to sleep if awakened). If they still need some sleeping medication, that’s a warning sign that we still don’t have enough lithium/valproate type effects. Once a patient is finally sleeping well on these medications, they can use poor sleep as a "marker" for trouble. When they start to sleep less than 6 hours, it’s time to watch closely for any other symptom of bipolar disorder, and increase the mood stabilizer if such a symptom shows up.

Travel crossing time zones creates automatic potential for sleep change: deprivation when traveling east, additional time when going west. Two studies report symptoms brought on by travel, with mania more common going east, and depression going west.^{Young, Jauhar}  Major travel within the same time zone (e.g. my Oregon patient who became manic in Mexico) may be destabilizing due to stress alone.

Stress alters many nervous system chemicals, including corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) which releases the body’s own steroids.^Arborelius Reproductive steroids such as estrogen and progesterone respond to stress; for example, women may stop menstruating when severely stressed. Serotonin, the mood-related neurotransmitter, also clearly changes with stress.^Duman All of these brain chemicals influence mood.

Stress is part of modern life (some would say more so in recent centuries?). Achieving a stress free life is not realistic for anyone (one could wonder what that would look like). People with bipolar disorder can be expected to show mood instability even during positive stresses such as moving into a new house or accepting a new job, let alone after trauma or losses. So while lowering stress levels may help maintain mood stability, people with bipolar disorder need to have enough mood stability from their medications to be able to handle at least some stresses.

In bipolar I it has been shown that the first episodes are commonly associated with a severe stress, whereas later episodes often appear "out of the blue", i.e. with no apparent stressor to bring them on. This raised the concern that somehow earlier episodes were making subsequent episodes easier to trigger. For more on this, read the next section.

Stopping antidepressants fast can significantly destabilize bipolar disorder.  Even though we know antidepressants can cause cycling, it looks like stopping them fast can do so also.  There is even a phenomenon called "antidepressant-discontinuation induced mania":  causing mania by stopping an antidepressant suddenly.^Goldstein  Dr. Sachs, the Harvard bipolar expert, recommends taking four months to taper off an antidepressant if things are going pretty well otherwise.^Sachs(a)  Since following this recommendation, I have seen much smoother courses for folks stopping their antidepressants.  

Does bipolar disorder get worse over time? (the "kindling theory")

Many people with  Bipolar I  have more episodes of mania or depression as time goes on, as shown in this man’s pattern (his age is shown at the bottom of the timeline; red means hospitalized, up is manic and down is depressed, of course):

This observation led to the so-called "kindling theory". The idea of "kindling" is based on the finding that a region of mouse brain repeatedly exposed to small electric shocks will eventually start to have spontaneous seizure-like electrical events. That is, repeated episodes seem to make subsequent episodes more likely to occur spontaneously. This is precisely the pattern observed in bipolar I.

Three out of five of the currently recognized "mood stabilizers" are anticonvulsants (valproate, carbamazepine, lamotrigine; as opposed to lithium and olanzapine). So it has been tempting to assume that bipolar phenomena might be "seizure-like" in some way. Unfortunately, there still is no clear understanding, nor even dominant guess, as to the basis of bipolar disorder. The accuracy of a seizure-like model is unknown. However, as estrogen has been shown to increase seizures, and progesterone to decrease them; and both seem also to modulate mood; there is further support for a seizure/bipolar relationship of some kind.

Bipolar II seems to get worse with time in many people, especially women. Some researchers^Leibenluft have guessed that each menstrual cycle is somehow driving the illness toward greater severity, and that’s why it looks so different in women compared to men.

As the illness gets worse, medications that seemed to have helped a person in the past don’t seem to "work" anymore. Antidepressants start to cause mixed state symptoms (can’t sleep, anxious, can’t concentrate, irritable — as well as depressed) and rapid cycling, where at first they were actually very helpful.

Because of this potential worsening with time, you should not count on being able to "go back" to a previously effective medication. Though I have not heard it stated as such, as I read the experts, and watching what happens to my patients, the "name of the game" may be to prevent cycling. That might be how you keep from getting worse. If that’s true, now you have two reasons to get your symptoms controlled: first, because you’d rather not have symptoms; but also because they could mark a worsening process that you might be able to interrupt with a fully effective treatment.

Basic problems and solutions

Problems with lithium can be grouped into two major categories: toxicity and minor side effects. The only common problems with valproate are nausea, weight gain and hair loss.

LITHIUM

Toxicity
Lithium definitely can interfere with thyroid function.^Lazarus Unless you have others in your family history with thyroid problems, you face no major risk from this effect, however. About one person in every ten^Gittoes taking lithium has to take thyroid hormone replacement because lithium lowers thyroid hormone levels. Because this is so common, and because becoming "hypothyroid" can have its own mood effects, it is very important to have your thyroid checked at least once a year, and most experts recommend every six months.

Lithium can cause kidney damage, and when it gets very high, people have died. These problems are avoided by very close monitoring of blood levels. Lithium can cause changes in kidney function that are potentially life threatening. Standard lithium levels only do this very rarely, but over decades of use can cause a slower, more easily recognized decrease in function^Gitlin that usually requires switching to a different medication.

If at any time while taking lithium you get side effects such as feeling unsteady, slurring your speech, or becoming confused, you need your blood lithium level checked right away. These are usually signs of the level being too high, with increased risk to your kidney. If these symptoms persist, there is danger to brain cells as well.

If your lithium is in the low range (e.g. 0.6-0.7 mmol/L) , it is generally unlikely to reach these "toxic" levels. However, if you start from a high level such as 0.9 or 1.0 mmol/L, becoming dehydrated can raise your level to the point where you might start to experience serious side effects. . So can adding an anti-inflammatory like ibuprofen, or some kinds of anti-high-blood-pressure medications. Check with your pharmacist to avoid these kinds of interactions.

Side effects

In almost all cases lithium side effects are less likely with a slow release preparation (U.S. Lithobid, Eskalith). Side effects most likely to cause you to reject further use are (in roughly decreasing order of severity):

• diarrhea
• tremor
• nausea
• urinary frequency

Diarrhea rarely decreases with time on lithium: you will probably have to reduce the dose (if already on slow release). Most people will put up with tremor until it interferes with function, such as signing checks in front of people (increased severity in anxious social situations is very common). If dose reduction leads to loss of benefit, you can try low dose immediate release propanolol (a simple blood pressure medication). Most people find this very effective if it doesn’t slow them down too much. Where the usual dose for blood pressure control is 80mg or more, a 10mg tablet is a good starting place for tremor. I tell people to use up to 4 per day if necessary, including taking two at once if one is not enough, after they have a feel for the effects of one alone.

Some people with nausea will see a decrease in this side effect with time. However, others will have nausea that won’t stop, even with slow release versions. You must lower the dose until this disappears. If nausea appears after you’ve been doing fine, suspect too high a blood level: get it checked.

Frequent urination is almost universal for patients on lithium and increases with blood level. Generally having to urinate at night, sometimes several times, is the biggest problem. It should diminish somewhat if you lower the level a little, but with lithium you should not make dose adjustments without discussing what you’re doing with your physician.

VALPROATE (updated 3/2003)

Weight gain is the bane of this medication. Hair loss can occur when at weight gain doses, but the weight thing is what makes people really angry about this medication if it happens. 

[UPDATE 3/2003: The manufacturer of Depakote has created an even slower-releasing version, called Depakote ER (extended release).  They believe it clearly helps avoid the weight gain problem discussed below.  After using this for more almost 2 years, I quite agree:  this form is very different from the previous slow-releasing version.  Many more people can get the benefits without the appetite problem.  When the slow-release version is available as a "generic", it's going to be tricky having to go back to that one to save money. 

Meanwhile, if you remember that only 80-85% is absorbed and calculate the "real" dose versus the dose-by-pill-milligrams, it seems to be fine to just substitute this new one for the older version; and there seems to be no reason not to do so, unless it's not on the "formulary" of your insurance company.  It does not cost more than the previous 500mg pill.  There is a 250 mg ER dosage as well, if you need more than 1000 mg, but less than 1500 to get the benefit without the appetite problem. 

Here's how I manage the weight thing.  First, I tell a patient as soon as I introduce the very idea of this medication that weight gain is a risk, but that if she/he gains any weight at all, we’re going to change the plan. Weight gain is not going to be something they’re just going to have to put up with. And, it doesn’t generally occur unless there has been a big increase in appetite, to really bizarre levels. One patient described it as "wanting to eat the refrigerator": hungry all the time, and not full when eating, even with enormous amounts of food. If you start getting that, it’s time to change the plan.

The manufacturer says if patients don’t eat more, they won’t gain weight, but most of my patients don’t seem to believe this. How about using exercise as weight control? As discussed elsewhere, physical activity is a great health tool generally, a great antidepressant, and probably a mood stabilizer overall. But sticking with it is hard even for patients without mood disorders. Trying to use increased physical activity to handle this weight problem works only for a few folks (mostly men, in my experience). So, when it occurs, it’s time to change the plan, in my view. Later, if no other strategies work out, you might have to consider putting up with weight gain. It seems to level off, but not until 20-30 pounds later.

I tell people to lower the dose to the point where this appetite effect disappears. Most people can tell when it stops, as thought there were a very discrete "threshold" beyond which the problem develops, and under which it quits. For most people this "threshold" seems to be around 750-1000mg (or 1000-1500 using the ER version), which unfortunately is generally the lowest dose sufficient for symptom control with valproate by itself. (Some do not get the appetite increase even with as much as 2000mg per day, but this is the minority) .

Unfortunately, when people have to lower the dose they lose some effectiveness as well. You can see now why I underline the positives of both lithium and valproate: when you must lower one because of side effects, you can make up for it with a low dose of the other. This so-called "rational polypharmacy" is now a routine strategy in psychiatry.^Post

Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: is this really a risk? 

There is some concern about valproate causing a hormone imbalance in women called "polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)."  This condition seems to be associated with both epilepsy (which is how psychiatry learned about it) and perhaps even with bipolar disorder.  Women with functioning ovaries considering Depakote treatment ought to be aware of this issue, which has evolved quickly over the last several years -- so I moved this whole section to it's own page where you can learn about the latest research on Depakote and PCOS, last revised 9/2004.  

What labs, how often, are necessary during followup?

As described in detail above, one must watch for thyroid hormone decreasing, and keep track of kidney function. These should be checked every six months (remember, hypothyroidism is common on lithium, about 1/10). Signs of too little thyroid hormone include feeling cold when everyone around you is warm; gaining weight despite eating little; low energy; increased sleep; and even depression. Obviously this can easily be confused with or even cause mood problems itself. Checking routinely makes this less likely to develop unnoticed.

For valproate, there is no clear consensus on when or what to test. You should read the FDA "black box" warning about liver problems. However, rates of liver problems for adults on one such medication are close to the rates of liver problems for adults not taking valproate at all. After your initial blood tests, which serve as a "baseline" against which to compare, it is not clear how often to test again.  The "package insert" from the manufacturer, which is always the most conservative, says to test "at frequent intervals, especially in the first 6 months".  But in practice most doctors do not seem to follow this recommendation.  In my experience, is seems frequent for doctors to make up their own minds, using their clinical judgement and experience regarding how much to "drive risk down" by frequent testing, versus the hassle, expense, and pain for the patient.  Some neurologists I've spoken with say they don't monitor at all unless there's a problem, like abdominal pain or nausea. 

Too high a valproate dose causes headache, blurred vision, and a foggy/fuzzy feeling — but not the "toxicity" effects like lithium. Thus we do not need to test valproate levels to keep them from going too high, as we do with lithium. Instead, we use blood tests when a person is not responding to valproate, to see if their blood level is high enough. As for when to do other lab tests for patients on valproate, see my separate essay on Lab Testing for Safety.  

What about other mood stabilizers? 
The list keeps evolving.  Here's a table of options, organized by the evidence we have to support their use.  Click on any of the medications for more information.  It's really worth looking this over, just to see how many options we now have!  I plan on keeping this table up to date frequently, as we get at least one clear new medication per year in the last several years.  

I don't want to take a lot of medication!

No one really does.  How do some people end up on 2 or more medications for one problem like bipolar II?  

Obviously there's no point in taking any more medication than is needed to control your symptoms!  More medications means more hassle, more co-payments, and more potential for interactions with each other or any other medication you add (including over-the-counter medications).  

Simply put, the reason we sometimes end up using multiple medications in treating bipolar II is:  a) your symptoms just won't get better with only one; or b) we're trying to use several medications at low doses, to avoid the side effects of a single one at full dose.  One exception: sometimes we have to use a medication just to combat the side effects of another.  For example, when lithium is working well but causing a tremor, sometimes instead of switching to another mood stabilizer (which is not guaranteed to work as well) we'll add propanolol to block the tremor.  Then if this patient becomes hypothyroid, another side effect of lithium about one time in 10, we might add thyroid hormone replacement.  At some point she/he might say, "this is getting ridiculous" and we would consider switching to valproate, for example, hoping to get good control of symptoms with fewer medications.  

The use of multiple medications at low doses instead of using a single one at full dose, to avoid side effects of any kind, has been called "rational polypharmacy" and is increasingly common as a strategy, including its use by the experts at the National Institutes of Mental Health^{Frye et al}.

Light therapy (or in this case, dark therapy)

Light therapy clearly works as an antidepressant.  It has much less likelihood of triggering mania, as the regular antidepressants do (as you've probably heard me rant about elsewhere on this website).  But to get a mood stabilizer  effect, you need to consider "dark therapy".  This has much less research to support it, compared to light therapy, but it's worth knowing.  Here's the story on "dark therapy" (it opens in a separate window so you can come back here easily -- just close the window).  

What is the role of exercise in bipolar disorder treatment?

Exercise clearly has antidepressant effects,^Phelps  even being shown recently to be equal to Zoloft^Blumenthal -- and perhaps better, 6 months after the end of treatment!^Babyak  It would be one of the most widely used antidepressant approaches, but for people’s ability to stick with it.  Even people without mood problems have trouble getting regular physical activity! Unfortunately this is not a joking matter: though Oregonians are more active than almost all other states in the U.S., still half of the state’s population gets no regular physical activity^{CD summary}. So expecting people with severe mood disturbances to get regular exercise is extremely unrealistic. However, my patients with the worst symptoms seem actually to have more regular exercise regimens. They seem to have learned from experience that it helps, and they are looking desperately for any help they can get.

One patient in her late 20’s, who has had extreme agitation and racing thoughts, described exercise as very effective for anxiety as well. She said that after about 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic effort she would feel something shift. As she "came down" from the workout, her anxiety would seem to "come down" with it. Another patient with an extensive history of self-harm (cutting, burning) found that weight work-outs seemed to provide the same kind of benefit: it would keep her from dissociating, or feeling like she was "flying apart".  

For another extensive "testimonial" direct from a patient herself, read this strong endorsement of exercise as a treatment in itself (includes my reply to her initial statement, and her follow-up). 

As you can imagine, routine physical activity is an important part of an overall mood-stabilizing "lifestyle", but I warn patients that maintaining such a plan is extremely difficult and will require great effort on their part.  Here is an essay about making exercise part of your life.  The more severe your symptoms, the more beneficial exercise may be. If your illness is bad enough, it may actually help motivate you to stick to the exercise.

What is "Social Rhythm Therapy"?

Bipolar disorder somehow disturbs how your body "clock" keeps time. Some people lose their "anchor" to real time (when the sun actually comes up and goes down). They can have their energy turn "on" in the middle of the night and be unable to sleep, often finding their mind extremely active. Or they can try to get up in the morning and feel as though their body is still completely asleep ("somebody give me some caffeine!") This led researchers to wonder whether "anchoring" a patient’s circadian rhythm might have mood stabilizing effects.  Click for a stunning example. 

The Western Psychiatric Clinic has been testing this idea with treatment for bipolar disorder they call Social Rhythm Therapy^Frank, which is added on to the regular medications used. Daily routines such as time of awakening, time of rising, time of first meal, time of going to bed, and time of going to sleep are kept very regular in this treatment.

Early results show some benefit, especially after months of keeping a very regular schedule of daily activities. If you have found that your activities are highly irregular, there may be value in looking for sources of this irregularity. Staying up late to work or play is one of them. Working irregular shifts is another.

Is ECT effective in Bipolar II?

Electro-convulsive therapy (ECT) has efficacy in bipolar disorder at least equal to medications, in the 60-70% range (improved or much improved).^Kusumakar Most experts agree that ECT should stand high in treatment algorithms (e.g. UTMB bipolar algorithm^Texas). However, these judgements are based on efficacy in bipolar I, as most of the studies of ECT in bipolar disorder preceded the formal recognition of BPII. To my knowledge there has been no published trial of ECT for BPII per se. Several of my BPII patients have had ECT with positive responses. Six patients with very rapid cycling have been presented, with the authors concluding that length of illness prior to ECT has tremendous impact on efficacy (longer time ill correlates with lower likelihood of response, and high likelihood of relapse after treatment). ^Wolpert

Unfortunately, in all forms of bipolar disorder one must think about long-term prevention as well as acute treatment, and "maintenance ECT" (repeated single treatments at regular intervals, as prophylaxis) has been much less studied, even for bipolar I. Rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) using a hand-held but very powerful magnet (similar in power to an MRI magnet) has been shown to have antidepressant effects^George, but exactly where to stimulate, how long, with what intensity and frequency, have yet to be worked out. Mark George’s group in South Carolina (the same group which recently demonstrated that retrograde stimulation of the vagus nerve has antidepressant properties!) has a randomized trial of rTMS for bipolar depression underway. This treatment holds some promise: though it requires repetition about every two weeks in most people, there are no significant side effects and almost zero risk.

Update 2004: You may have heard the news about people having an MRI study done and feeling better afterwards, which was recently studied at Harvard.^Rohan  Since they used a much different magnet, much less specialized than is used in rTMS, all of a sudden the question of how to use magnetic fields to treat depression is even more complicated than before!

Can diet do anything?

There is reason to think that a "ketogenic diet", which is basically what happens with the Atkins Diet approach (very few carbohydrates), might have mood stabilizing properties, because it sometimes helps limit the frequency of seizures, and there are some remarkable similarities between epilepsy and bipolar disorder.  Dr. Robert Belmaker in Israel has tried this (personal communication, 2004) but the patient did not become "ketogenic" (which can be measured very easily with a urine test) . It was also proposed by a research group in Kentucky,^El-Mallakh but so far we do not have research evidence on this approach. 

The ketogenic diet is very nearly the opposite of common American eating, which can include very high quantities of refined carbohydrates (read "sugar").  And the American diet is very clearly associated with "metabolic syndrome" (one recent study indicated as many as one quarter of the entire U.S. population has this condition Ford).  And there is just a hint of evidence that metabolic syndrome may have its own mood consequences.  Thus it becomes plausible to see the ketogenic diet as an extreme in one direction, while the refined carbohydrate/metabolic syndrome approach to eating represents an extreme in the opposite direction, dietarily -- and perhaps even in their mood effects.  A patient's wife sent me a "case report" describing her husband's mood changes on and off the Atkin's Diet. 

Since the long-term health consequences of an Atkin's approach are not known, I would not want you to think I'm advocating this.  Just something to think about.  People often wonder if there is anything they can do dietarily, but beyond this carbohydrate issue, I am not aware of any research that would support any particular diet practices -- except avoiding weight gain generally, which can be tricky with some of the medications we use.