Bipolar Disorder Related Content

Everything You Need To Know About Bipolar Disorder

We all experience shifts in our moods at times. However, some people feel changes in mood differently. For people with bipolar disorder, experiencing heightened emotions and depressive states are often so intense that they interfere with everyday life. Bipolar disorder (BD) is both common and...

PACT Extends Its Reach To Underserved Communities

McLean’s Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT) strives to provide customized, person-centered care in the community. Serving people that primarily have chronic mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, the program’s goal is to help people live fulfilling, independent lives...

New Clinic Strives to Mitigate Risk of Developing Psychotic Disorders

Schizophrenia , schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder with psychotic features are diagnoses laden with stigma, and they can sound downright frightening. Child psychiatrist Perihan Esra Guvenek-Cokol, MD , an expert in psychotic disorders, doesn’t dispute their seriousness. But she knows...

How One Nurse Makes a Difference for Patients and Staff

Jeanne McElhinney, MS, RN, BC , nurse director for McLean’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program , has seen a lot of changes. She arrived at McLean in 1986 during training for her associate degree in mental health at Middlesex Community College. At the time, she covered three shifts...

Yale Hicks: His Journey to Becoming a Peer Specialist

Yale Hicks told his college friends in New Orleans that he cut short his junior year abroad in Ghana because of malaria. “I lied to everybody, including myself,” said Hicks, who was experiencing hallucinations associated with what was eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder . “I was about 21, and...

Peer Counseling’s Critical Role in Psychosis Treatment

If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, what is better than having someone along with whom to share it? That is the philosophy behind the peer counseling program at McLean Hospital’s Division of Psychotic Disorders . “A lot of people with these conditions have difficulty working outside...

Ross J. Baldessarini, MD: Celebrating a Pioneer

Ross J. Baldessarini, MD , originally thought he wanted to be an industrial organic chemist, not a doctor. The prospect of medical school didn’t thrill the Williams College chemistry major. He found it to be more like a trade school than an academic endeavor, not to mention it being “cutthroat and...

New PACT Team Offers Support 24/7

Monica Luke knows what it’s like to care deeply about someone with schizophrenia. Her son, now 37, had his first psychotic break at age 20 and hasn’t spoken to her in a decade. Although she’s pained by the estrangement, she’s thankful for one thing: she could use his college fund to pay for his care...