March 2010: School performance and bipolar disorder

The notion that genius and madness are closely related can be found in the writings of Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. There is some modest, mostly historically collected scientific evidence for this. See, for example Post, 1996. In this podcast, Dr Ovais Badat speaks to Dr James MacCabe about his latest article in the British Journal of Psychiatry (MacCabe et al, 2010), where he explored the link between school performance and bipolar disorder in later life. This is a retrospective cohort study of nearly one million people in Sweden, with some very striking results.

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Audio running time: 15 minutes

 

Credits: 0.5

 

Learning outcomes:

 

By the end of this podcast we hope you will be able to:

 

  • understand the background history and epidemiological questions which led to the commissioning of this study

 

  • describe some of the essential features of a good cohort study, and discuss some logistical challenges which arise when conducting large scale studies

 

  • explain a hypothesis to which accounts for the association between scholastic performance and incidence of bipolar illness in this study

 

  • be confident in discussing some of the early implications of this study with respect to their own clinical practice.

 

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Schizophrenia – genetic and environmental factors

 

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