A Spanish research study has found that the more manic episodes and hospitalizations you've had, the more likely you are to be on or trying to get disability and/or to have problems with family life.

In addition, you're more likely to have difficulties with social function according to the number of depressive episodes and hospitalizations you've had, and lack of social support worsens this effect.

Currently being in a depressive episode increased difficulties in the three areas. Not surprisingly, a low level of education affected the ability to function at work.

The researchers also found that people with bipolar disorder who are on or seeking disability are more likely to be "nicotine dependent." I'm not so sure that this is important, since those who have bipolar are 7.3 times as likely to be smokers as the general population.

Was this study useful? The basic conclusion is that the more often you've had severe symptoms of bipolar disorder, the more likely it is that you'll be having serious difficulties in your life. Perhaps the specific data is useful to clinicians, but I can't help thinking that this study's results were all pretty obvious already.

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Over the last several months I've added opportunities for you to tell your own stories on a variety of bipolar disorder topics, and to read what others have written on those topics. Some of those are:

• Controlling Manic Spending
• Deciding Whether To Have Kids
• What Led to Your Bipolar Diagnosis?

Please take the poll at right to tell me what topics interest you. You can vote for as many as you like, and vote whether you'd like to read about the topic or write about it, or both. And if there is something else not listed that you'd like to read what others have to say about, or to write something about, please feel free to leave a comment.

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A study has found that men with bipolar I disorder have more difficulty with memory than women with the same disorder.

The study, by researchers from the section of Neurobiology of Psychosis at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College in London, found that the men had more trouble with immediate memory (for example, remembering what was just said a few seconds ago), the ability to store memories, and retrieving memories.

In addition, the difficulties with memory corresponded with lower scores on a test called Global Assessment of Functioning, which indicates that men with bipolar I would have more difficulty than women with bipolar I.

The study also included a control group of men and women who did not have any mental disorders. While the men with BP I also scored lower than people in the control group, the available information from the study did not include whether, or to what degree, women with BP I had lower scores than the controls. Also not mentioned was whether there were gender differences between the men and women in the control group. (Note: The full report on the study was not available to me.)

_{Photo: Julia Freeman-Woolpert / Stock.Xchng}

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A Facebook reader asked me, "Can racing thoughts be triggered? Or do they just happen out of the blue usually? I seem to be able to trigger my racing thoughts sometimes."

Having racing thoughts doesn't mean you're just thinking fast - they can cause real distress. In What Are Racing Thoughts? I've talked about some of the ways racing thoughts can appear, and I'm sure some of you can contribute more manifestations.

Are your racing thoughts sometimes triggered or are they spontaneous? Do you know what triggers them? Leave a comment.

_{Photo: Marek Bernat}

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