Sharon asks... If you are a bipolar who has never had a manic episode but experiences only depression, how is that different from plain old depression? How does a doctor or clinician make the diagnosis? I ask because I started on Prozac in 1993 and had a phenomenal positive reaction, which lasted a number of years until it finally wore off. I tried, with a psychiatrist, many different anti-depressants (though not tricyclics) and nothing worked, until finally he gave me Lamictal (lamotrigine) and Prozac (fluoxetine). This has worked very very well for me for about a year (knock on wood), but I never considered myself bipolar, only depressed. Just curious if there's any neurological difference anyone knows of.

Romy103 Asks... My 21-year old daughter is diagnosed with Bipolar II. After being on Welbutrin and Lamictal, for awhile and doing well, she thought she was okay and decided to stop her medications. She relapsed, and the meds didn't work as well when she went back on them. So Prozac and Lamictal were tried I believe, then Cymbalta – neither seemed to help. Now a new psychiatrist is prescribing the extended release form of lithium. So far not getting any results, but not up to therapeutic dose yet. While I understand the good things about lithium, I have a few concerns/questions about it:

I applaud the efforts of the DSM-5 Task Force and Work Group in developing more effective and specific ways of describing and quantifying mental illness and symptoms. The fruit of their efforts, DSM-5, holds out ...

On Tuesday, February 9th, after 19 hours of deliberation, a jury found Rebecca Riley's mother, Carolyn Riley, guilty of second degree murder in Rebecca's death in December 2006 due to an overdose of psychiatric medication. It made me sad to read this, mostly because it doesn't bring Rebecca back and it doesn't solve the bigger problems raised by this case. The system – including many well meaning and caring individuals – failed Rebecca, and these failures killed her. Rebecca's mother appears to have been so broken that she could not effectively keep her daughter safe. But that is why we look to the village – to our systems of care, education, social services, family, and neighbors – to keep a safety net under children who are not safe in their parents' care.

People are pretty vocal about what they perceive to be the dangers of diagnosing and medicating children who have psychiatric disorders, and you can find plenty of horror stories, including the case of Rebecca Riley, but what about the dangers of not medicating children who fail to respond to non-medication interventions and could really benefit with the right diagnosis and medications?

A recent visitor to our Bipolar Blog wrote: I have a question, I was diagnosed BP1 in July, I am struggling with the severe manic episodes involving self damage, screaming, it is pretty bad, the police were here last night, but thanks to God, they did not take me. My boyfriend is loving and supportive and a good person is taking care of me when I come down. But the physically intimate part of our relationship is gone. He always has an excuse. This only makes me feel more and more lonely and displaced. He refuses to make the connection of normalcy for me. To me it proves he cannot handle BP. Anyone else have this problem, can you overcome it and how??? Thanks for your thoughts! Lori B.

The Rebecca Riley case underscores the need for professionals to obtain as full a picture as possible to reduce the risk of operating on false or misleading information – from any source.