In The News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Diane Marinelli, APR
dmarinelli@jbrf.org
678-413-3488

November 22, 2002

JUVENILE BIPOLAR RESEARCH FOUNDATION TO LAUNCH FIRST PROFESSIONAL LISTSERV FOR THERAPISTS TREATING CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS WITH BIPOLAR DISORDER

PAWLING, NY/November, 22 2002--The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation will sponsor the first professional online listserv for psychologists, neuropsychologists, social workers and other therapists who treat children and adolescents with bipolar disorder beginning in November of this year.

"The forum is a way to establish a national dialogue on current practices and potentially effective measures to use in treatment," said Dr. Demitri Papolos, director of research for the foundation and one of the founders of the organization. Dr. Papolos is also co-author of The Bipolar Child.

There are currently no standardized psychosocial treatments for early-onset bipolar disorder. The JBRF professional listserv will give these professionals an opportunity to discuss treatment, share information and experience, and to ask for and give advice on treatment. Discussions will be moderated by professionals who have experience evaluating and treating these youngsters and their families, including David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D. Mary Fristad, Ph.D., Nancy Austin, Psy. D., Dana Luck, Ph.D,, and Johnine Cummings, M.S.W. The professional listserv will be available through the organization's website at www.jbrf.org (click on Professional Listservs). Those who wish to be added to the list of subscribers will be able to contact Sandi Norelli, JBRF board member and Professional Listserv Coordinator at sandi@jbrf.org.

The Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation raises and distributes funds for the most promising research into the causes, treatments and prevention of this disorder. The JBRF is the first charitable foundation of its kind devoted solely to research on childhood-onset bipolar disorder.

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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