BACKGROUND: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a serious mental illness with adverse impact on the lives of the patients and their caregivers. BD is associated with many limitations in personal and interpersonal functioning and restricts the patients' ability to use their potential capabilities fully. Bipolar patients long to live meaningful lives, but this goal is hard to achieve for those with poor insight. With progress and humanization of society, the issue of patients' needs became an important topic. The objective of the paper is to provide the up-to-date data on the unmet needs of BD patients and their caregivers. METHODS: A systematic computerized examination of MEDLINE publications from 1970 to 2015, via the keywords "bipolar disorder", "mania", "bipolar depression", and "unmet needs", was performed. RESULTS: Patients' needs may differ in various stages of the disorder and may have different origin and goals. Thus, we divided them into five groups relating to their nature: those connected with symptoms, treatment, quality of life, family, and pharmacotherapy. We suggested several implications of these needs for pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy. CONCLUSION: Trying to follow patients' needs may be a crucial point in the treatment of BD patients. However, many needs remain unmet due to both medical and social factors.

• Keywords
• bipolar disorder, family, medication, psychotherapy, quality of life, stigma, treatment, unmet needs,
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Review MeSH

BACKGROUND: A content analysis was used to describe the association between psychiatric disorders and aggression in the printed media in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. METHODS: Articles were chosen from the most widely read daily newspapers and magazines in both countries during five one-week periods in 2007. A coding manual was developed and a content analysis was performed. Aggressive behavior was assessed by two separate categories - the role of the mentally ill person in the violent act (perpetrator/victim) and the type of aggressive act (homicide, suicide). RESULTS: A total of 375 articles were analyzed. MAIN FINDINGS: 1) The proportion of articles depicting psychiatric disorders together with either self- or other-directed aggressive behavior is 31.2%; 2) Homicide was most frequently mentioned in the context of psychotic disorders and schizophrenia, while affective disorders were most frequently associated with both completed suicides and homicides; 3) Eating disorders and anxiety disorders were seldom associated with any kind of aggressive behavior, including self-harm; 4) The vast majority of articles presented mentally ill people as perpetrators, and these articles were more often coded as stigmatizing. 5) Articles with aggressive behavior mentioned on the cover are roughly as frequent as those with aggressive behavior in the later sections of the media (36.7% vs. 30.7%). CONCLUSIONS: The results are similar to the findings in countries with longer histories of consistent advocacy for improved depiction of mental illness in the media. However, we have shown that persons with mental illness are still over-portrayed as perpetrators of violent crimes, especially homicides.

• MeSH
• Aggression psychology   MeSH
• Mental Disorders psychology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Violence psychology   MeSH
• Newspapers as Topic * MeSH
• Crime Victims psychology   MeSH
• Periodicals as Topic * MeSH
• Suicide psychology   MeSH
• Homicide psychology   MeSH
• Criminals psychology   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Humans MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't MeSH
• Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH
• Slovakia MeSH