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Allison Schlesinger
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Telephone: 412-864-4151
Wendy Zellner
Director
Telephone: 412-586-9777

University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences 

Top International Experts on Bipolar Disorder Present Latest Research at Pittsburgh Conference

PITTSBURGH, June 6, 2011 - The Ninth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder will be held June 9 to 11 at the David L. Lawrence Conventions Center in Pittsburgh. The conference, held every two years, is the only venue in the world devoted exclusively to highlighting new research into understanding bipolar disorder, which affects both adults and children, devastates families, accounts for nearly half of all suicides in the United States, and costs billions of dollars in medical bills, missed work and lower productivity each year. The world’s leading scientists will touch upon varying aspects of bipolar disorder from the latest clinical trials and neuroscience, to circadian rhythms, suicide and treatments.

The conference is sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC.

To accommodate media, a press room will be located in Rooms 310-311 of the convention center and will be open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., on Thursday, June 9, and Friday, June 10. The phone number in the press room will be 412-325-6065.

Conference highlights include:

8:45 a.m., Thursday, June 9

  • How Medical Conditions and Lifestyle Management Affect Bipolar Disorder – Medical conditions and lifestyle behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use, abnormal sleep cycles and obesity, are believed to play a vital role in the development of bipolar disorder. Researchers from the University of Toronto, the University of California, Berkeley, the Stanford University School of Medicine, and the F. Hoffman-La Roche Ltd. in Switzerland, will discuss their latest theories and interventions for medical lifestyle management and bipolar disorder.

10:30 a.m., Thursday, June 9

  • Bipolar Disorder and the DSM-5 – Renowned international experts from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Stanford University School of Medicine, Zurich University Psychiatric Hospital in Switzerland and the National Institute of Mental Health will discuss current evidence-based efforts to revise the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) to fully incorporate bipolar disorder research from the past two decades in an attempt to build an empirical foundation from multiple scientific disciplines.

1 p.m., Thursday, June 9

  • Special Report from National Institute on Drug Abuse – Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, will highlight the institute’s recent research efforts to identify genetic and environmental factors underlying bipolar disorder and substance abuse, and the most effective strategies for their successful treatment.

2:30 p.m., Thursday, June 9

  • Pregnancy and Bipolar Disorder

8:45 a.m., Friday, June 10

  • Strategies for Moving Biology Forward – Researchers from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Sheppard Pratt Health System, Hospital Chenevier – Mondor in France, the University of Toronto and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will discuss new targets such as biological causes and inflammatory markers to better diagnose, treat and increase our understanding of the underlying causes of bipolar disorder.

1 p.m., Friday, June 10

  • Debates in Bipolar Disorder: Antidepressants are Ineffective 

8:45 a.m., Saturday, June 11

  • Controversies in Bipolar Disorder: Is Pediatric Bipolar Disorder Being Overdiagnosed in the U.S.? 

1 p.m., Saturday, June 11

  • International Society for Bipolar Disorder (ISBD) Task Force Reports – Researchers from four ISBD task forces will report the topics of assessing cognition function in patients with bipolar disorder, defining the neuroanatomy of bipolar disorder, optimizing the design of clinical trials for bipolar disorder and identifying and developing biomarkers for the disease.

For more information about the meeting, to request abstracts, register as press or learn more about press briefings, please contact Megan Grote Quatrini at GroteME@upmc.edu or by cell phone at 412-417-1639 or call UPMC Media Relations at 412-647-3555. The preliminary scientific program and hotel information are available at www.9thbipolar.org. 

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