People afflicted with bipolar disorder suffer from extreme mood swings that veer between moments of emotional highs and euphoria to deep depression. In a new study, researchers from the Universities of Manchester and Lancaster in the United Kingdom followed 50 bipolar patients for a month, studying how they think and act.

It seems that clients who are consciously aware about their mood swings feel that they could manage their moods. And it is even possible to predict future mood swings in bipolar clients by monitoring their thoughts and behavior.

Clients who believe extreme things about their moods like that their moods were completely out of their own control or that they had to keep active all the time to prevent becoming a failure, developed more mood problems in a month’s time. But, on the contrary, clients with bipolar disorder who could let their moods pass as a normal reaction to stress or knew they could manage their mood fared well a month later.

Talking therapies like CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) aim to help patients to talk about their moods and change their thinking about them to reduce or even avoid further bipolar mood swings.

Yours, Beate Landgraf