Bipolar
Disorder News
A recent
survey found 78 percent of Americans polled failed to name
bipolar disorder as a mental illness and 38 percent couldn’t
name a single symptom associated with the disease. The survey
was released Oct. 9, 2004 by The Nation's Voice on Mental
Illness (NAMI) and Abbott Laboratories to mark the first national
Bipolar Disorder Awareness Day.
The day
includes free mental health screenings and referrals for treatment
of bipolar disorder, along with efforts to provide people
with information about bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive
illness.
Bipolar
disorder affects more than 2.3 million people in the United
States. The biochemically based mood disorder features mood
swings from mania to depression to normal mood.
“The
impact of untreated bipolar disorder on a person's life is
huge,” Richard C. Birkel, NAMI executive director, says
in a prepared statement. “Early
detection and treatment can prevent years of illness-driven
choices that produce devastating individual losses. Bipolar
Awareness Day offers screening, education, information, hope
for the millions of Americans living with bipolar disorder,”
Birkel says.
Among
the Survey Findings:
Women aged 35 to 54 have the greatest awareness (39 percent)
of bipolar disorder, followed by college-aged students at
35 percent. Awareness of bipolar disorder in the average population
is 22 percent.
People age 55 and older have an awareness rate of 12 percent.
Awareness about bipolar disorder among whites is 24 percent,
among Hispanics it's 23 percent, and among blacks it is 10
percent.
(Source:
HealthDayNews)
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