one month before treatment. Bipolar patients in thisstudy showed an average of 90.3% improvement in theirdepressive symptoms, with no incidence of mania orhypomania. They all continued to use light therapy, and allshowed a sustained positive response at a three monthfollow-up (Hopkins and Gelenberg, 1994). Another studyinvolved a four week treatment of morning bright lighttreatment of patients with seasonal affective disorder,including bipolar patients. This study found a statisticallysignificant decrement in depressive symptoms, with themaximum antidepressant effect of light not being reacheduntil week four. Hypomanic symptoms were experienced by 36%of bipolar patients in this study. Predominant hypomanicsymptoms included racing thoughts, deceased sleep andirritability. Surprisingly, one-third of controls alsodeveloped symptoms such as those mentioned above. Regardlessof the explanation of the emergence of hypomanic symptoms inundiagnosed controls, it is evident from this study thatlight treatment may be associated with the observedsymptoms. Based on the results, careful professionalmonitoring during light treatment is necessary, even forthose without a history of major mood disorders. Anotherpopular treatment for bipolar disorder is electro-convulsiveshock therapy. ECT is the preferred treatment for severelymanic pregnant patients and patients who are homicidal,psychotic, catatonic, medically compromised, or severelysuicidal. In one study, researchers found marked improvementin 78% of patients treated with ECT, compared to 62% ofpatients treated only with lithium and 37% of patients whoreceived neither, ECT or lithium (Black et al., 1987). According to Dr. John Graves, spokesperson for TheNational Depressive and Manic Depressive Association havecalled attention to the value of support groups, challengingmental health professionals to take a more serious look atgroup therapy for the bipolar population. Research shows that group partic...
