0) and obsessive-compulsive

syndromes (OR=3.9), whereas no such significant association was found with MDD. This new, unpublished finding is a consequence of the broadened definition of bipolarity; as in the case of comorbidity with alcohol use disorders mentioned above, a. major part of comorbidity is shifted from Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical MDD to BP-II. Studies of comorbidity can be a fruitful method of checking the consequences of changing diagnostic criteria. Suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, and completed Proteasomal inhibitors suicides The relationship between suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and suicides is not. simple. Suicide attempts occur most, frequently among adolescents Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and young adults, whereas suicide rates rise sharply with age. In addition, in most cultures women make more suicide attempts than men, but. more men than women commit, suicide. Suicide attempts appear to be weak predictors of suicide. In our lifelong prospective study in 220 hospitalized bipolar patients92 only 3 of the 57 patients who had attempted suicide committed suicide later;

overall, only 3 of 17 patients who committed suicide Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical had previously made a suicide attempt. Suicide is not, just a result, of depression (although 80% to 90% of suicides are associated with major or minor depressive disorders) but. is also closely associated with aggression/impulsivity. Prospective treatment research in this field is sparse, although suicide prevention by long-term medication is effective. As demonstrated by a lifelong follow-up study of 406 patients with major mood disorders,92 it, would appear Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical that drugs which have antiaggressive effects, such as lithium and clozapine, could be especially promising for suicide prevention in bipolar subjects. The hypothesis of a long-term antisuicidal effect, of modern atypical neuroleptics – about which there is so far no data – should therefore be carefully studied. BPD and dementia

The association Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical of BPD with dementia has been little investigated. A large Danish study found a correlation between dementia and the number of hospitalizations in bipolar patients,93 whereas we found no comparable relationship in a. long-term follow-up of hospitalized patients.94 Recently Vasopressin Receptor we published preliminary evidence that longterm medication with lithium or with clozapine may attenuate the severity of dementia.95 In addition, Nunes et al96 found evidence that, compared with a sample treated with other mood stabilizers, Alzheimer’s disease is reduced in elderly bipolar patients treated with lithium. These findings are compatible with research on the neurotrophic and neuroprotective properties of some drugs, and will hopefully stimulate research into the long-term effects of atypical neuroleptics prescribed in large amounts today.