Dr. Greg Murray on World Bipolar Day: “Over the last 10 years there’s been lots of changes on lots of fronts when it comes to bipolar disorder, all of them very, very positive”
World Bipolar Day
The vision of WBD is to bring world awareness to bipolar disorders and eliminate social stigma
Each year on the date of artist Vincent van Gogh’s birthday, March 30th, a group of organizations including the International Bi-Polar Foundation, declare a World Bipolar Awareness Day. Van Gogh suffered from mental illness throughout his life and was posthumously diagnosed as probably having a bipolar condition.
Both depression and bipolar disorder are mental illnesses that affect mood. But unlike depression, with bipolar disorder folks experience episodes of depression and episodes of mania — or a less-severe form of mania called hypomania. An episode of depression in bipolar disorder is the same as other types of depression, while mania is an unusually high mood or irritability for the person, often accompanied by excessive energy. Episodes of depression or mania generally last for a period of time, though a small number of people with bipolar disorder may experience episodes that change quickly.
You can find out more about bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses at the Canadian Mental Health Association online at cmha.ca.
New directions in bipolar disorder research, treatment and care
CREST.BD empowers communities to engage in bipolar disorder research
A University of British Columbia-based group called CREST.BD is researching the psycho-social issues associated with bipolar disorder. The Collaborative Research Team to Study Psychosocial Issues in Bipolar Disorder…or CREST.BD for short…uses a pioneering participatory approach.
Researchers, healthcare providers, and perhaps most importantly, people who live with bipolar disorder and their allies, work together to improve health and quality of life in people with bipolar disorder. CREST.BD empowers communities to engage in bipolar disorder research.
Dr. Greg Murray
Dr. Greg Murray is a deputy research lead at CREST.BD. He has a PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia, and is a professor in Psychological Sciences at Swinburne University. Dr. Murray is also a practicing clinical psychologist, involved nationally with the training and accreditation of clinical psychologists. His major research interest is the chronobiology of mood, especially the relationship between sleep, circadian function, and positive mood states, and he has over 100 publications in this area.
The majority of his work follows a collaborative and multi-disciplinary framework. Greg is a co-author on the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists’ Mood Disorder Guidelines, and wrote the Australian Psychological Society’s guidelines for psychological treatment of bipolar disorder. He is currently leading a 4-year project to develop and test a new online intervention (ORBIT) for people who have had a large number of episodes of bipolar disorder.
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