As part of its ongoing effort to support bipolar depression awareness and education, AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) is bringing The Bipolar Journey: Living With Bipolar Depression interactive exhibit to patients and caregivers across America.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Saphris tablets (asenapine) to treat adults with schizophrenia, a chronic, severe and disabling brain disorder, and to treat bipolar I disorder in adults, a serious psychiatric disorder that causes shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function.

Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved SAPHRIS((R)) (asenapine) sublingual tablets for acute treatment of schizophrenia in adults and acute treatment of manic or mixed episodes associated with bipolar I disorder with or without psychotic features in adults.

The medicalization of such mental illnesses as depression and bipolar disorder, which have seen prescription drug advertisements on TV skyrocket since such advertising became permissible in 1997, has done nothing to remove the harmful stigma attached to the illnesses, according to sociologists from Indiana University and the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

A year ago, researchers reported that fewer than half the patients previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder received an actual diagnosis of bipolar disorder after using a comprehensive, psychiatric diagnostic interview tool — the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV. In this follow-up study, the researchers have determined the actual diagnoses of those patients.

Bovie Medical Corporation (the “Company”) (NYSE-AMEX Symbol: BVX), a manufacturer and marketer of electrosurgical products, announced a 510K submission to the FDA seeking pre-market clearance for Bovie’s BOSS for surgical applications where soft tissue bipolar coagulation is desired. The BOSS is the latest generation device based on Bovie’s saline enhanced sintered steel technology.

A trio of genome-wide studies - collectively the largest to date - has pinpointed a vast array of genetic variation that cumulatively may account for at least one third of the genetic risk for schizophrenia. One of the studies traced schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, in part, to the same chromosomal neighborhoods.

Scientists have discovered that many common genetic variants contribute to a person’s risk of schizophrenia, providing the first molecular evidence that this form of genetic variation is involved in schizophrenia. The researchers also found that many of these DNA variations also are involved in bipolar disorder but not in several nonpsychiatric diseases.

A new study by a large international consortium found that many common genetic variants contribute up to a third of a person’s risk of inheriting schizophrenia and many of the same DNA variations are also involved in bipolar disorder.

Diagnosing children with bipolar disorder is challenging and controversial. Some children with bipolar disorder are diagnosed based on irritable mood alone. Findings support current diagnostic criteria.