BiplarBlog.com is a web community dedicated to providing high quality information, support and education to the consumers, family members, caregivers and other individuals who's lives have been impacted by bipolar disorder (Manic Depression). The site was initiated after many requests from visitors to the site schizophrenia.com for a site like schizophrenia.com but focused on bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia is a disease that is very similar to bipolar disorder and the two are frequently misdiagnosed as each other - so people interested in schizophrenia frequently end up reviewing bipolar information - and vise versa.

The site is managed by a group of volunteers around the world - all of whom are either family members (with sons & daughters, brothers and sisters, or parents who have suffered from bipolar disorder) or people who have bipolar disorder. While none of us are mental health professionals, we are very familiar with the disease both through direct personal experience and extensive and reading on the topic. We rely upon what we believe are good sources of scientifically accurate materials relating to schizophrenia and frequently consult with an ever growing group of schizophrenia researchers who act as unofficial advisors to the site - these schizophrenia researchers who help on an unofficial basis by answering our questions and occasionally providing feedback on different areas of the site include:

• E. Fuller Torrey - Stanley Medical Research Institute and Treatment Advocacy Center
• Dr. Irv Gottesman - Professor Emeritas of University of Virginia
• Dr. Ann Pulver - Johns Hopkins Medical School

While we greatly appreciate the occasional input from these people, the occasional mistakes, misspellings and typographical errors on the web site are entirely ours. We are always looking for additional sources of expert opinion - and welcome volunteers in this area.

We have no formal affiliations with any other mental health-related organizations or companies. We don't advocate any one program of treatment, but try to provide strong, science-based information (both the good and the bad news) on all the options available so that people can make the best informed decisions for themselves and their families. We avoid simplistic answers because we know from experience that this is a very complex disease. We do not claim to provide any medical recommendations at this site.

BipolarBlog.com is a place where family members, friends, people with bipolar disorder, researchers, and other professionals to get together and share information and experiences in the common battle against this disease.

BipolarBlog.com is a nonprofit organization that is registered as part of the schizophrenia.com project of the Tides Center, an independent nonprofit organization registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) public charity. The ongoing support and development of the web site is funded via individual donations and limited advertising on the site. No sponsors of the site (either donors, or advertisers) have any influence in the content of the site.

Following are the key objectives of this site:

Primary Objective

To quickly improve the lives of families suffering from Bipolar disorder by providing high quality (scientifically-based) information, support and education, research and discussions on the subject. The focus of the site is on ongoing news and developments that families can apply to improve their lives quickly.

Secondary Objectives

• To more widely and quickly disseminate bipolar research and information so that treatment techniques, medications or cures can more rapidly identified and adopted so that the lives of people with bipolar are more quickly improved.
• To improve communications between the different bipolar disorder "stakeholders" - i.e. the bipolar research and the support organizations and the families around the world suffering from bipolar disorder, so as to improve the understanding and flow of mutually beneficial information between all of the groups.
• To create a comprehensive bipolar information service, and to make this service available to as broad an audience as possible, so as to maximize the benefit that this information will have to people around the world.

This is the overall goal of this web site - to provide valuable and accurate information on the brain disease known as bipolar disorder. We hope that it provides some value to you.