With this post, we continue our biweekly series on medications used to treat bipolar disorder and related symptoms. This week, we focus the spotlight on medications that can help you sleep.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Sitting: Peter Smole and Roman Peklaj and Maja Valic; Standing: Joe Kraynak, Darja Budja, Cecie Kraynak, Emi Kladnik, Ana Sorc, and Katja Jus"][/caption] Cecie and I were invited to visit Ljubljana (lyoo-blee-ah-nah), Slovenia for the release of the Slovene edition of Bipolar Disorder for Dummies. We accepted and have been in Slovenia since this past Thursday, 10/8/2009. We flew into Venice on Thursday to meet our gracious hosts, Darja Budja ("j" is pronounced "y") and her husband Simon Perko. Darja translated the book into Slovene and is a devoted bipolar advocate. She has created her own bipolar blog (bipolarna.si) and is one of the organizers of an active bipolar support group in Ljubljana.

With this post, we continue our sort-of-biweekly series on medications used to treat bipolar disorder and related symptoms. Several weeks ago, we covered Wellbutrin (bupropion), an antidepressant that's in a class of its own. This week, we turn our attention to an older class of medications used to treat depression – Tricyclics.

I just read an article on eMax Health entitled "Bipolar Disorder Linked to Genes of Biological Clock." The article cites a study presented at the Eighth International Conference on bipolar disorder, suggesting that "abnormalities in the genes that control circadian rhythms (rhythms of approximately 24 hours, also called biological clock) contribute to the development of bipolar disorder (manic depression)."

As many people have discovered, regulating sleep is often one of the best ways to regulate mood. Unfortunately, maintaining a regular sleep schedule is not always as easy as it sounds, especially if your neighbors, your family or roommates, your schedule, your lifestyle, or your sleeping arrangements do not cooperate.