March 05, 2008
Elizabeth Brondolo’s, Ph.D., first book, Break
the Bipolar Cycle: A Day-to-Day Guide to Living with Bipolar
Disorder, co-written with Xavier Amador, Ph.D., and published
by McGraw Hill, is a friendly, considerate, practical, sometimes
intimate guide for people suffering from Bipolar Spectrum Disorder
(BPS). It provides an accessible scientific foundation for
BPS, steps to identify and understand their condition, and offers
systematic, proactive methods for taking the first steps towards
healing.
A person with BPS, once known as manic depression, oscillates
between mania—consisting of high creativity, racing thoughts, and
euphoria—and depression. The writer Virginia Woolf once wrote about
her own experiences with mental illness, “[manic depression] has
its fascinations as well as its terrors.”
Symptoms of BPS are subtle and are often overlooked as unipolar
depression, or major depression, meaning the person has no signs of
mania. Dr. Brondolo, Professor of Psychology at St. John’s
University, points out that even if a patient appears to have major
depression, a clinician should never rule out BPS. Even people with
BPS 1, or classic manic depression, spend 80 percent of their
episodes depressed.
Her book couldn’t have come at a better time. Problems with
diagnosing BPS contribute to patients’ confusion and difficulties
when, after treatment, they do not feel they’re getting
better. The expert Hagop Akiskal estimated that 50 percent of
people are misdiagnosed and that a correct diagnosis takes an
average of 10 years because, as Brondolo says, “it is much easier
to get this wrong, than to get this right.”
One of the most compelling aspects of Break the Bipolar Cycle
are the personal narratives of Brondolo’s clients interspersed
throughout the book. After 15 years of clinical work, Brondolo says
that they were her motivation. “I wrote the book because my
patients have told me so many stories and I have loved working with
them.”
She realized people needed awareness and education after
attending “Ask the Doctor” Sessions at the National Alliance for Mental
Illness for several years. During these sessions, people
from all over the country with BPS and/or Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder (OCD) told Brondolo their histories. She realized there
were large numbers of people living in areas of the country with
serious mental illnesses who have inadequate treatment due to very
limited access to physicians and psychologists. “That,” she says,
“was very compelling to me. I was very moved.”
Combining all she had learned from her New York City patients
and from researchers’ studies, Brondolo set forth to create a book
that would empower people, who couldn’t readily access mental
health care, with knowledge of their own condition and the
availability of resources. She says, “Through an accessible book,
we could give them the tools for self-management, so they could
talk more effectively with their doctors.”
At the Forefront
At St. John’s University, Brondolo continues to conduct innovative
research into the physical effects of stress with St. John’s
graduate and undergraduate students. With funding from American Heart Association
and NIH, the National Heart, Lung and Blood
Institute and St. John’s University, the last seven years have
been marked by milestone work done by Brondolo studying workplace
conflict and the influence of racism on cardiovascular risk
factors. St. John’s students have spearheaded their own academic research and
careers while studying under Brondolo. Jahanara Ullah, Jasmin Kwok,
Juhee Jhalani, and Asha Kumar, to name a few, have all participated
in data collection while Jennifer Atencio also traveled to Thailand
to present findings at the International Society of Behavioral
Medicine Meetings
In one of her current projects, Brondolo and her graduate
students are trying to measure perceived racism and how racial
discrimination is experienced across African-American, Latino, and
different Asian communities.
“When the targeted people fear that the majority group members
don’t believe them or don’t take them seriously—they become more
distressed and less able to communicate. On the other side, when
majority group members are anxious and afraid of being perceived as
discriminatory, then they are less willing to initiate.”
She explains that social ostracism arises when both sides “shut
down” and become isolated resulting in a kind of polarization.
Brondolo believes when we understand other people’s reactions and
our own to inter-racial tension, “then we can work together more
effectively to overcome discrimination.”
Optimism emanates from the researcher/professor as is did from
the author, admitting that she loves coming to work everyday
because there are solutions.
“Most people have difficulties over the course of their lives,
be it a mental illness or encountering racism, but we can reach out
to each other and listen. It’s worth taking the risk to talk
together.”