Previously in this forum I've said, "Maybe the anti-convulsant mood stabilizers should really be called a class of brain stabilizers. As both epileptics and manic depressives find that end result. It's also interesting that 'kindling' is a concept for both disorders."
The current thinking is that bipolar is on a spectrum of affective disorders or even on a spectrum that includes schizo-affective disorder and schizophrenia on it's high end.
What consideration have any of you given to bipolar being on a spectrum of affective-epileptic disorders? I've seen others ask this question on the internets.
I ask this firstly because of the use of anti-convulsants in both, but also because there are a lot of overlap in symptoms, not only in the kindling concept but also especially in simple partial seizures. Having read the symptoms of simple partial seizures in regards to myself, I thought, oh really?
There is also a higher co-morbidity between the two disorders than in the general population.
This doesn't mean that bipolar couldn't be on both spectra, whether it's a longer one dimensional spectrum or a two dimensional spectrum with bipolar at it's intersection.