Two extreme states, two emotions of disproportionate intensity: outrageous happiness or abyssal sadness. This is the daily life of those who suffer from bipolar disorder. This mental illness affects approximately one million people in France, 40 million worldwide. The WHO ranks it 6th among disabilities.
Arnaud, 71, a retired polytechnic engineer, was diagnosed with bipolar at the age of 38. Today “stabilized”, he remembers manic phases: “I felt like a new messiah sent to Earth to bring love back to the midst of men”. These phases could be followed by deep depressions, “so painful that one of the only ways out
Hopes and medical advances
Faced with this pathology and the lack of information that still surrounds it, relatives are sometimes helpless and feel very alone to accompany, support, understand bipolar people. “They are scary when they are in this state. It’s very, very scary to have an individual who is no longer what you knew”, says Françoise 71, wife of Arnaud and who accompanied him during these phases of exaltation as of depression… She remembers the fatigue, this feeling of “being plucked” in the face of the situation.
It takes an average of 7 to 10 years to diagnose bipolar disorder. But now, research is advancing to go faster in detecting the disease. In recent years, studies have opened up very promising avenues, whether in genetics or in immunology. “In bipolar mood disorder, there is dysregulation of the immune system. So the principle is simple, you take a blood test when you leave your doctor’s office, and with the help of certain measures, we can offer you a probability of diagnosis, this is what we do in many large numbers. medical specialties,” explains Professor Raoul Belzeaux.
Better support
At the head of
the Fundamental foundationProfessor Marion Leboyer, also a psychiatrist, is at the origin of discoveries which make it possible to better understand the mechanisms which trigger bipolar disorders: “In about 40% of bipolar patients, we see what is called an inflammation of low level, that is to say that in their blood, in their digestive system, at the level of the nervous system, there are markers of inflammation. This is great progress because it makes it possible to test a certain number therapeutic innovations”.
Better diagnosis to better support those who suffer. Also help them to understand themselves and understand this disease that strikes them. That’s what does
l’association Argos 2001. One of its volunteer members, Nathalie Lewertowski, organizes a walk near Paris once a month. She takes with her about twenty patients and their relatives in the peaceful alleys of the Bois de Vincennes.
“Bipolar Disorder: The Despair of Patients, the Hope of Doctors”a report by Cécile Soulé.
Sound recording: Frederic Cayrou
Achievement : Jérôme Chélius, assisted by Martine Meyssonnier
Mixing: Valerie Lavallart
For further
From Kanye West to Mariah Carey: When Pop Culture Takes Over Bipolar Disorder – Jean-Victor Blanc, The Conversation, 05/07/2018
Bipolar Disorders: A Decade of Discoveries – Inserm, 28/10/2022
3 things to know about bipolarity to stop trivializing it – Elie Hantouche, HuffPost, 30/03/2018
The site of the Pyschodon march –