Question:
I've done a very quick search of medline, and found an
immense amount of research into the above subject. I've culled a few
articles and edited them a bit for brevity. I thought you might be
interested, particularly in the life-course symptomatology; early onset of
mood symptoms vastly increases risk for substance abuse.
Answer:
Let me remind you
something about psychology and how their studies are performed, and this is
something I learned in a psychology class which I paid good money for (as a
reminder: there's a lot of free infomration out there, that doesn't mean
it's true). That is : All the below information is strictly based on
statistics, and (as we reviewed once per day in Psych 210) "There are three
types of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics". It was a quote from Mark
Twain, and the professor of the class was a Dr. Richard Perlow. (OF course,
he also began each class with the phrase "A day without statistics, is like
a day without sunshine." -- and if he equated statistics with lies, then I
don't know what to say about him I was also asked, however, when first diagnosed if I had ever used drugs. I
had to honestly answer that yes, at one point I tried marijuana. I wasn't
specific at the time, but back when I "tried" it, realistically I was
pressured by my roomate and when I tried I *couldn't* inhale (I got half a
breath and coughed like crazy and said "forget it"). Still, they probably
recorded that in their statistics as associating "substance abuse" use with
bipolar as you quoted below. Like I said "Lies, Damned Lies, and
Statistics".
