Bipolar disorder and ME/CFS

Has anyone got or had bipolar disorder or a neurophychiatric disorder? If so, do you think your ME/CFS caused it? I had paranoid thoughts and some hallucinations around 10 years ago (20 years after getting ME/CFS) and diagnosed with BD. I often wonder if it was caused by the ME/CFS or is something distinct from it. I am ok at present and on 20mg Aripiprazole.

 

I don't know but am often struck by symptom overlap with Parkinson's / Alzheimer's ( which both can feature hallucinations and paranoia) , which is reinforced by some people responding to dopamine modulating medication, so there may be a mechanism / shared symptom pathway.
This may be more evident during PEM

Bipolar used to be often misdiagnosed as schizophrenia - particularly in females and there has been recent GWAS research into these disorders which have found various genetic associations which would account for symptoms .

There is a heritable aspect to many neuropsychiatric conditions and genetic research tends to explore both this aspect and drug targeting areas .

Given the wide variety of symptoms , these genes are across multiple areas / pathways and there is, perhaps unsurprisingly, an overlap with genetic research for other conditions which have wide symptom ranges.

Given the wide symptom range in ME there may be a genetic overlap with many conditions , which may have some relevance. ( offering hope for shared research and for drug repurposing /development)
I think there may be genetic predisposition for many things , it's a trigger that's needed to activate a process .

As genetic studies become both more commonplace and start to drill down , we might be able to unravel a bit more .
Hopefully Decode ME will be the beginning of something

 

Thanks for the comments. I do wonder why I went a bit mad at 44 years of age (I am ok now) and not in my youth if I have a distinct independent illness called BD. I would have thought that I would have had BD earlier but then I just don't know. I am fine now (at the moment at least).

 

Maybe you've been misdiagnosed? It's very common!

 

That’s an interesting question @Woozy.

I don’t know if ME causes those symptoms or not. If it does it would be a less common symptom pattern. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause these symptoms, or couldn’t cause them. Everybody is different and has different responses and susceptibility and variations of biology.

I’ve heard quite a few people report increased paranoia and visual disturbances that might be considered hallucinations, though also may not be, as well as less often reports of full blown hallucinations.

I think mostly these have been reported at the outset of illness in the acute phases, or at a time of severe illness during infection. So it may be infection caused these symptoms directly and also triggered or exacerbated ME processes. So not the ME.

It could also be another co-occurring condition. Like thyroid dysfunction which can make you hallucinate and suffer paranoia.

 

what do you mean?

 

Thanks for sharing - I know a few people who have a psychiatric diagnosis & disabling fatigue.

 

I'm a layperson but I'd be a little careful. Firstly an ME/CFS diagnosis says you haven't been diagnosed with a identified/known illness - no biomarker. Secondly, I think it's pretty difficult to accurately diagnose neuropsychiatric illnesses- no biomarker(?). Thirdly if your sleep is disturbed then would that present as a neuropsychiatric illness?
So there's a lot of uncertainty here!

 

Yes - that's what I meant, @Woozy, - sorry if it wasn't clear.