The School of Medicine will hold its 21st annual Mood
Disorders Symposium, titled Bipolar Revisited: Where We've
Been, Where We're Going, on Tuesday, April 24, to draw
attention to new findings in basic and clinical research on
depression and bipolar disorder.
The symposium, to be held from 12:45 to 6 p.m. in
Turner Auditorium on the East Baltimore campus, will
feature the just-published second edition of Manic
Depressive Illness.
This revised edition, co-authored by Frederick K.
Goodwin, former director of the National Institute of
Mental Health and a current faculty member in the
Department of Psychiatry at George Washington University;
and Kay Redfield Jamison, of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at Johns Hopkins, describes a wealth of new
discoveries about a disease that plagues an estimated 6
million people in the United States alone.
"The 17 years since the publication of the first
edition of this text have been the most explosively
productive years in the history of medical science,"
Goodwin said. "In every field relevant to our understanding
of manic-depressive illness — genetics, neurobiology,
psychology and neuropsychology, neuroanatomy, diagnosis and
treatment — we have gained a staggering amount of
knowledge."
Jamison and Goodwin drew from the vastly expanded
scientific knowledge by enlisting the assistance of a
distinguished group of collaborators, three of whom will
participate in the symposium: James Potash and Frank
Mondimore, both of the Department of Psychiatry at Johns
Hopkins, and Harold Sackeim, of the Department of
Psychiatry at Columbia University. In addition, U.S. Rep.
Sue Myrick of North Carolina, who has had personal
experience with bipolar disease in her family, will give
families and patients her perspective on this illness.
Depression and bipolar disorder are implicated in the
overwhelming majority of suicides, killing more than 30,000
people in the United States each year. Suicide is the third
leading cause of death in young people. In addition, the
World Health Organization estimates that by 2020,
depression will be the second leading cause of "lost years
of healthy life" worldwide. The worldwide economic cost of
depression is estimated at $80 billion a year.
Intended for psychiatrists, social workers,
psychologists and counselors, the event is also open to
patients, family members and anyone who has an interest in
learning more about bipolar disorders and recurrent
depression. Registrants will participate in open
discussions with researchers and clinicians.
The symposium is presented by the Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Johns Hopkins Mood
Disorders Center and Johns Hopkins Continuing Medical
Education.
For more information and to register, go to this
page.