Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Patients and Families
Author: Francis Mark Mondimor
"Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that affects about two percent of the population. Such famous politicians, writers, artists, and musicians as Winston Churchill, George Frederick Handel, Lord Byron, Virginia Woolf, Edgar Allan Poe, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Vincent van Gogh had bipolar disorder, but most persons affected by bipolar disorder are just ordinary people who want nothing more than to get back to their everyday lives after they or their family members have been diagnosed with the illness. This book is written for them." -- from the Preface
In this book for persons with bipolar disorder and their families, Dr. Frank Mondimore offers a comprehensive, practical, compassionate guide to the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment and causes of this potentially devastating psychiatric illness, formerly known as "manic-depression." He offers practical advice for getting the most out of the various treatments that are now available -- from medication, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive treatment to new approaches such as St. John's wort and transcranial magnetic stimulation. For each, he discusses advantages, disadvantages, side effects, and other information to help patients make informed decisions about treatment options. He also describes what it is like to live with bipolar disorder and discusses how lifestyle changes can improve quality of life. Throughout, he focuses on the importance of building a support system, of planning for emergencies, and of giving one's self permission to seek help.
Bipolar disorder is a particularly difficult illness to diagnose and treat, Dr. Mondimore acknowledges, and it can be incredibly destructive to relationships and careers, canwreak havoc on family life and, when not properly treated, is a potentially fatal disease. In his wide-ranging discussion of this unpredictable disorder, Dr. Mondimore describes problems that are unique to women, whose disease may be affected by the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, and childbirth,. He includes new information on the forms the illness takes in children and adolescents, in whom it can sometimes be mistaken for more common problems such as "hyperactivity" or Attention Deficit Disorder. He explains what we know about the genetics of the disease, how symptoms fluctuate with the seasons in seasonal affective disorder, and how illness can be made more difficult to treat because of alcoholism or drug abuse. He discusses coping with the stigmatization of psychiatric diagnosis, gives advice on picking a psychiatrist and on dealing with medical insurance issues, and even explores the fascinating relationship between bipolar disorder and artistic creativity. Finally, Dr. Mondimore tells family members what they can do to help the person with bipolar disorder -- and themselves -- and he offers hope for the future as researchers learn more about the disease and how to control it.
Emily K. Tedesco
This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to this devastating psychiatric illness. The author incorporates an easy to understand format that includes the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options for those affected with bipolar disorder. The purpose is to help educate and inform. The author does a great job in fully explaining the advantages and disadvantages of treating this illness. The most important component is the effective way he combines all the current facts and data into a practical and useful guide. The book is targeted toward patients with bipolar disorder and their families. It would also be useful for students and mental health professionals who work with this special population. The author is credible and quotes respected professionals in the field. This book includes modern treatment options, tips for getting and staying well, a full explanation of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, and how the illness affects special populations. The author includes a section on coping with medication side effects. The most important feature is the full section of up-to-date resources, including support groups, informational Internet sites, and suggested readings. This book is an invaluable tool for patients and families living with bipolar disorder. The author incorporates real life stories, expert advice, symptoms and diagnosis, modern treatment options, and resources to help make living with this disorder tolerable. Most importantly, the concepts and information presented in this book are practical.
Doody Review Services
Reviewer: Emily K. Tedesco, BA, CADC (Rush University Medical Center)
Description: This book is a comprehensive and practical guide to this devastating psychiatric illness. The author incorporates an easy to understand format that includes the symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options for those affected with bipolar disorder.
Purpose: The purpose is to help educate and inform. The author does a great job in fully explaining the advantages and disadvantages of treating this illness. The most important component is the effective way he combines all the current facts and data into a practical and useful guide.
Audience: The book is targeted toward patients with bipolar disorder and their families. It would also be useful for students and mental health professionals who work with this special population. The author is credible and quotes respected professionals in the field.
Features: This book includes modern treatment options, tips for getting and staying well, a full explanation of the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria, and how the illness affects special populations. The author includes a section on coping with medication side effects. The most important feature is the full section of up-to-date resources, including support groups, informational Internet sites, and suggested readings.
Assessment: This book is an invaluable tool for patients and families living with bipolar disorder. The author incorporates real life stories, expert advice, symptoms and diagnosis, modern treatment options, and resources to help make living with this disorder tolerable. Most importantly, the concepts and information presented in this book are practical.
Booknews
A guide to the symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, and causes of this potentially devastating psychiatric illness, formerly known as manic-depression. Mondimore (psychiatrist and clinical faculty member at the U. of North Carolina) offers practical advice for getting the most out of the various treatments that are now available<-->from medication, psychotherapy, and electroconvulsive treatment to new approaches such as transcranial magnetic stimulation. He also describes problems that are unique to women, forms the illness takes in children and adolescents, the genetics of the disease, and ways to cope with the stigma of psychiatric diagnosis. Throughout, he focuses on the importance of building a support system, of planning for emergencies, and of giving one's self permission to seek help. Paper edition (unseen), $16.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Kirkus Reviews
An exhaustive, scientific, yet compassionate assist for sufferers of "the chameleon of psychiatric disorders" and their families. Psychiatrist Mondimore (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) looks first at the symptoms and diagnosis of bipolar disorder, or manic-depression: the disease wears many masks that can make diagnosis difficult. Mondimore concedes that at present psychiatrists are generally working with the same diagnostic tools that were used in the 19th century: their eyes and ears. He goes on to discuss treatment. Medications are first and foremost—primarily mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. He follows with a thoughtful considerations of electroconvulsive therapy, counseling, and psychotherapy. Mondimore is especially clear on medication side effects (and how to avoid them), how various treatments have been used and misused, and what a reasonable standard should be. In part three, Mondimore considers how bipolar disorder affects children, adolescents, and women; and how it is affected by alcoholism and drug abuse, seasonal affective disorder and chronobiology, genetics, and other medical conditions such as stroke and hormonal problems. In part four, Mondimore offers real, detailed help for living with the disease. The key is to recognize that bipolar disease is relentless and that the way to keep it at bay is for the patient to be relentless, too—"about getting needed treatment and sticking to it". Illustrative case studies here make it clear this can be done, but it isn't easy. An absolute gold mine, then, for those with the disorder and their families: thorough, candid, and up-to-date advice, full of new possibilities for help.
Rating
3 Stars from Doody
Book about: Maida Heatters Pies and Tarts or Getting the Best from Your Microwave
Art of Aging: A Doctor's Prescription for Well-Being
Author: Sherwin B Nuland
In his landmark book How We Die, Sherwin B. Nuland profoundly altered our perception of the end of life. Now in The Art of Aging, Dr. Nuland steps back to explore the impact of aging on our minds and bodies, strivings and relationships. Melding a scientist’s passion for truth with a humanist’s understanding of the heart and soul, Nuland has created a wise, frank, and inspiring book about the ultimate stage of life’s journey.
The onset of aging can be so gradual that we are often surprised to find that one day it is fully upon us. The changes to the senses, appearance, reflexes, physical endurance, and sexual appetites are undeniable–and rarely welcome–and yet, as Nuland shows, getting older has its surprising blessings. Age concentrates not only the mind, but the body’s energies, leading many to new sources of creativity, perception, and spiritual intensity. Growing old, Nuland teaches us, is not a disease but an art–and for those who practice it well, it can bring extraordinary rewards.
“I’m taking the journey even while I describe it,” writes Nuland, now in his mid-seventies and a veteran of nearly four decades of medical practice. Drawing on his own life and work, as well as the lives of friends both famous and not, Nuland portrays the astonishing variability of the aging experience. Faith and inner strength, the deepening of personal relationships, the realization that career does not define identity, the acceptance that some goals will remain unaccomplished–these are among the secrets of those who age well.
Will scientists one day fulfill the dream of eternal youth? Nuland examinesthe latest research into extending life and the scientists who are pursuing it. But ultimately, what compels him most is what happens to the mind and spirit as life reaches its culminating decades. Reflecting the wisdom of a long lifetime, The Art of Aging is a work of luminous insight, unflinching candor, and profound compassion.
Publishers Weekly
The septuagenarian surgeon whose brutally honest demythologization of death in How We Die garnered a National Book Award offers a mushier, platitude-filled treatise on aging, calling it a "gift" that establishes boundaries in our lives, making everything within those boundaries all the more precious. Brief, frank descriptions of droopy penises, declining hormone levels and loss of hearing and bone density are accompanied by reminders that stroke is not a normal consequence of aging and that our bodies are like cars and taking good care of parts extends their usefulness. A gushing tribute to pioneering cardiac surgeon Michael DeBakey, now aged 98, teaches the importance of knowing one's limitations and learning to function within them, while now-80-year-old actress Patricia Neal recalls how sheer stubbornness and a browbeating husband enabled her recovery from a debilitating stroke at 39. Nuland learned life lessons from two fans, a cancer survivor who understands that it's her response to adversity, and not the adversity itself, that shapes her future, and a formerly depressed octogenarian who now doesn't allow herself the "luxury" of despair. Although some of Nuland's devotees will be comforted by his hopeful if familiar advice, others seeking more of the bracing, defiant insights that made him famous will be disappointed. (Mar. 6)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationKaren McNally Bensing - Library Journal
Americans are living longer but not necessarily better lives. Late life is often filled with pain as well as physical and mental disability, much of which, argues National Book Award winner Nuland (surgery, Yale Univ.; How We Die), is a result of the "current biomedical campaign against the natural process of aging." Aging itself is not a disease but an important risk factor for many debilitating disorders of old age, he asserts. In an informal study of older adults, the author, now 77, observed individuals (himself included) who live active, fulfilling lives often despite serious health challenges or extreme age. He identifies three key practices for a rewarding late life (which he applies to his own life): developing satisfying personal relationships, maintaining physical abilities, and being creative. The book also casts a critical eye on life-extension research, suggesting that work on preserving physical and mental function as long as possible is far more valuable. "We must study how to be old," Nuland writes. This literate, thoughtful book—an excellent "textbook" for successful aging—is highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, LJ10/15/06.]
Table of Contents:
An Incident in the Subway 3How We Age: Body and Mind 19
Approaching a Century: Michael DeBakey 61
Making Choices 87
Three Who Overcame 116
A Friendship in Letters 143
Adding Centuries to Our Years 181
Drinking from the Fountain of Youth 217
Wisdom, Equanimity, Caring-Principles for Every Age 251
A Coda for Aging 275
Acknowledgments 287
Index 291
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