This book offers practical help for patients, their families and loved ones. Although bipolar disorder is relatively common, clinical research shows that the most frequent treatments lead to poor outcomes in all but a small minority of patients. Calm Seas shares approaches which have been shown to lead to long periods of stable recovery in many patients. Feel as if bipolar disorder is untreatable? Bipolar disorder strikes many of us as mysterious. The patients themselves often don't view it as a problem. Those loved ones trying to pick up the pieces often don't know where to turn for help. Employers and family don't know if there is any chance the condition will ever become manageable, etc. Bipolar disorder seems to many to be difficult to treat, or perhaps even untreatable. Many patients, families, and even clinicians, however, don't seem to be aware that the treatment approaches most commonly used in the United States have repeatedly been shown in clinical research studies to lead to poor outcomes in all but a small minority of patients. Yet scientifically documented and much more successful treatment approaches are readily available, and have been shown to lead to long periods of stable recovery in many patients. Unfortunately, these approaches have been almost completely forgotten. They aren't widely known, taught, or applied. In the meantime, 2 1/2 million people with bipolar disorder in the US alone continue to suffer an unpredictable, out of control, emotionally painful inability to function for years or decades of their lives due to bipolar disorder, with significant risk of suicide. The odds aren't very good unless they and their loved ones become experts on the progression and treatment of bipolar disorder. Helping them to do so is the purpose of this book. These are the lessons the author has learned in his thirty years of treating patients and his extensive review of the clinical research literature on the treatment of bipolar disorder. Based on the above observations, he has come to see that one of his main functions with his own patients is to teach them, and their families and loved ones, to understand bipolar disorder and its treatment. In the process he has routinely seen his patients and families take on a considerably more active role in their treatment. This collaborative approach, together with an evidence-based approach to the treatment, seems to help the patients become much steadier. Many of them reach stable recovery, that is six months or more with more even moods, no major mood episodes, and greater ability to function in their lives. This book describes bipolar disorder and its successful treatment in considerable detail, focusing primarily on those factors that affect long-term outcomes. The book uses numerous pictures, graphs, tables, and clinical case histories to simplify and explain the story and make it more understandable.
About the Author: Roger Sparhawk, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist who has been treating patients for over 30 years--in private practice, as well as in hospitals and public clinics. He works with patients, families, and other clinicians with the goal of improving the the quality of life of those suffering bipolar disorder. Dr. Sparhawk studied for two years in Germany, including one year at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU, University of Munich), then finished his pre-medical studies and bachelor's degree in psychology magna cum laude at Case Western Reserve University. He completed his medical degree at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, his internal medicine internship at Mount Sinai Hospital of Cleveland, and his psychiatric residency at University Hospitals of Cleveland. He then went on to complete a consultation-liaison fellowship at the Medical Center Hospital of the University of Vermont. Dr. Sparhawk has had a special interest in bipolar disorder for the past 15 years, and he has been a member of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders since 2005. His observations on the treatment of bipolar disorder have appeared as letters to the editor in a number of psychiatric journals. Dr. Sparhawk's book Calm Seas reflects the need to help not only the individuals suffering from bipolar disorder, but also their families and close friends. Dr. Sparhawk currently serves as a staff psychiatrist at Alternative Paths in Medina, Ohio and is in private practice in Akron, Ohio.