The International Bipolar Foundation recommends that people with bipolar disorder avoid caffeine entirely.
Objectives: In healthy populations, caffeine appears to have beneficial effects on health; however, patients with bipolar disorder (BD) are routinely advised to limit caffeine use in psychoeducation programmes.
Caffeine
“Stimulants can trigger mania and should be avoided,” says Jess G. Fiedorowicz, MD, PhD, an associate professor in the departments of psychiatry and internal medicine at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City.
Avoid concentrated sources of simple sugars, such as soft drinks, fruit juices, jellies and jams, syrups, and candy bars. Go for Fatty Acids – Omega-3s, the essential fatty acids found in walnuts, flaxseed, and coldwater fish, such as salmon. Limit Alcohol and Caffeine – alcohol is a depressant.
Caffeine raises dopamine levels in the brain, which can cause increased anxiety, restlessness, and thus induce mania or hypomania (which can then bring on a loss of appetite when you have bipolar disorder).
Caffeine has been found to induce manic symptoms and trigger the onset of BD in people with no history of psychiatric disorders at baseline.
Magnesium: Magnesium — found in whole grains, beans, and dark leafy vegetables like spinach — has been shown to have an effect similar to lithium, the most common bipolar medication. Upping your intake of magnesium, a natural mood stabilizer, may decrease your need for medication.
A stressful circumstance or situation often triggers the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Examples of stressful triggers include: the breakdown of a relationship. physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
You'll typically need mood-stabilizing medication to control manic or hypomanic episodes. Examples of mood stabilizers include lithium (Lithobid), valproic acid (Depakene), divalproex sodium (Depakote), carbamazepine (Tegretol, Equetro, others) and lamotrigine (Lamictal). Antipsychotics.
Eating a balance of protective, nutrient-dense foods. These foods include fresh fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, lean meats, cold-water fish, eggs, low-fat dairy, soy products, and nuts and seeds. These foods provide the levels of nutrients necessary to maintain good health and prevent disease, in general.
Bipolar disorder is treatable with a combination of medication and therapy. Medications. Mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, and antidepressants can help manage mood swings and other symptoms. It is important to understand the benefits and risks of medications.
People with underlying mental health issues may be more susceptible: a review of eight studies found that caffeine aggravated symptoms of anxiety and panic disorder (Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics, 2011).
Drugs with a definite propensity to cause manic symptoms include levodopa, corticosteroids and anabolic-androgenic steroids. Antidepressants of the tricyclic and monoamine oxidase inhibitor classes can induce mania in patients with pre-existing bipolar affective disorder.
Stimulant medications can actually make bipolar symptoms worse, often triggering a manic episode.
Caffeine, initiated within the first 10 days after birth, is one of few drug therapies shown to significantly decrease the risk of BPD in very low birth weight infants. This benefit is likely derived, at least in part, from reduced exposure to positive airway pressure and supplemental oxygen with caffeine therapy.
B vitamins are often used to treat mood
Anxiety disorder often accompanies bipolar disorder. Vitamin B1 can help ease anxiety and irritability for some adults, according to a 2021 study .
Childhood trauma
Some experts believe that experiencing a lot of emotional distress as a child can cause bipolar disorder to develop. This could be because childhood trauma and distress can have a big effect on your ability to manage your emotions. This can include experiences like: Neglect.
Long-term studies show that both major depression (unipolar and bipolar) and mania are most common in early adulthood and less common in older age. The prevalence of mania tends to decrease with age even more than depression. Mood symptoms in general decline with age, and the balance does shift more to depression.
Bipolar Triggers and Warning Signs
Bipolar disorder features extreme shifts in mood that are unpredictable and often disruptive to daily functioning. Changes in sleep patterns, eating habits, emotions, and behaviors accompany the mood swings.
Experts believe bipolar disorder is partly caused by an underlying problem with specific brain circuits and the functioning of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. Three brain chemicals -- norepinephrine (noradrenaline), serotonin, and dopamine -- are involved in both brain and bodily functions.
Bipolar disorder is frequently inherited, with genetic factors accounting for approximately 80% of the cause of the condition. Bipolar disorder is the most likely psychiatric disorder to be passed down from family. If one parent has bipolar disorder, there's a 10% chance that their child will develop the illness.
Recent research has found a correlation between low vitamin D levels and neuropsychiatric illness. Specifically, it has been noted that vitamin D deficiency has been found to be associated with bipolar depression.
When our mood is low, our cravings for sweets seem to go up. No surprise, then, that carb cravings often go hand-in-hand with bipolar.
Lamotrigine. Lamotrigine (Lamictal) may be the most effective mood stabilizer for depression in bipolar disorder, but is not as helpful for mania. The starting dose of lamotrigine should be very low and increased very slowly over four weeks or more.