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Risa B. Hoag
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JUVENILE BIPOLAR RESEARCH FOUNDATION
TO START FIRST PROFESSIONAL LISTSERV FOR BIPOLAR DISORDER

PAWLING,NY/February, 25 2002 -- The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation will sponsor the first professional online listserv for physicians who treat children and adolescents with bipolar disorder beginning in April of this year. The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation raises and distributes funds for the most promising research into the causes, treatments and prevention of this disease. The JBRF is the first charitable foundation of its kind devoted solely to research in childhood-onset bipolar disorder, and this is the first listserv designed specifically to facilitate a dialogue between psychiatrists, pediatricians, and developmental neurologists, all of whom treat youth with this condition.

“Professional education and the support of physicians who are engaged in the treatment of children with bipolar disorder is a critical part of the mission of the Foundation,” stated Dr. Demitri Papolos, Director of Research for the Foundation and one of the founders of the organization. Dr. Papolos will also serve as one of the listserv moderators along with Gianni Faedda, M.D, both experts in the diagnosis and treatment of this condition throughout the life-cycle.

The JBRF professional listserv will provide physicians with an opportunity to participate in online discussions of treatment, share information and clinical experience, as well as to ask for and give advice and consultation on the treatment of juvenile-onset bipolar disorder and its comorbidities. The JBRF also intends to establish a referral network for families who contact the foundation seeking advice and guidance in the selection of well-trained physicians competent to diagnose and treat the condition around the country.

The professional listserv will be available through the organization’s website which is scheduled to go live in mid March. Those who wish to be put on the list of subscribers earlier can contact JBRF board member and professional liaison, Ms. Sandi Norelli at Sandi@JBRF.org.

Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) affects more than 1 million children and adolescents in the United States at any given time. Abrupt swings of mood and energy that occur multiple times within a day, intense outbursts of temper, poor frustration tolerance, and oppositional defiant behaviors are commonplace in juvenile-onset bipolar disorder. These children veer from irritable, easily annoyed, angry mood states to silly, goofy, giddy elation, and then just as easily descend into low energy periods of intense boredom, depression and social withdrawal, fraught with self-recriminations and suicidal thoughts. Recent studies have found that from the time of initial manifestation of symptoms, it takes an average of ten years before a diagnosis is made.

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