Mood Swings

They are some of the most troubled children that psychiatrists ever see. They have raging tempers and engage in reckless behaviors that frequently land them in the principal's office, even the hospital. But are they bipolar? In the last 15 years, diagnoses of bipolar disorder in children have skyrocketed as much as fortyfold, according to some estimates. The condition — defined by severe mood swings, between depression and mania, lasting for weeks or month at a time — has traditionally been considered a lifelong condition in adults and is treated through tranquilizers and antidepressants.

The answer to the question of why Congress would spend time and money attempting to prove that a prominent athlete lied is found in a name. Taylor Hooton. The government might not have backed off the pursuit of the truth about Roger Clemens, anyway, given the nature of the high-profile hearing Feb. 13, 2008, that seemed to leave an odor of perjury in those hallowed chambers. But it really can't back off on Taylor Hooton. Hark back to March 17, 2005. That was the day Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro appeared before the congressional Committee on Oversight that was looking into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

THIS may be a rhetorical question, but has Aaron Sorkin lost his brilliant mind ["Sorkin Takes the Blame for '60,' " by Patrick Goldstein, July 17]? As a huge fan of his work, I find it hard to believe that he actually said, "TV has a very measurable effect on our national mood. When TV gets bitchy and pissy, you find Americans getting bitchy and pissy too," and meant it. Yeah, maybe Americans in Los Angeles and New York, but they were already bitchy. Seems Mr.

They are some of the most troubled children that psychiatrists ever see. They have raging tempers and engage in reckless behaviors that frequently land them in the principal's office, even the hospital. But are they bipolar? In the last 15 years, diagnoses of bipolar disorder in children have skyrocketed as much as fortyfold, according to some estimates. The condition — defined by severe mood swings, between depression and mania, lasting for weeks or month at a time — has traditionally been considered a lifelong condition in adults and is treated through tranquilizers and antidepressants.

Fear and panic may finally be taking their summer vacation. The mood in financial markets worldwide brightened this week, no doubt to the great relief of the major central banks, which have been trying to halt a deepening credit crunch by pumping huge sums into the banking system. Never underestimate what hundreds of billions of dollars can do to make Wall Street feel better, at least for a time. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied nearly 143 points Friday to close at 13,378.

Singer Kurt Elling has been receiving a great deal of attention lately, in part because heis a male jazz singer, somewhat of a rarity these days, and in part because he has been actively and aggressively marketed and promoted. His appearance at the Jazz Bakery this week provides an opportunity to take a look past the hype and into the music. And Elling's first set Thursday night gave a clear picture of both his strengths and his weaknesses.

Diagnosing the public's current foul mood has the pundits working overtime these days. It's puzzling: We win the Cold War, stamp out inflation and add 5 million new jobs to the economy. Nevertheless, people are unhappy, angry, fearful, disheartened or all of the above. A recent ABC News poll found just 28% of Americans believe the country is going in the right direction. Almost seven in 10 feel it's on the wrong track. And last November's elections were hardly an endorsement of the status quo.

Life with heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson has been "torture . . . pure hell . . . worse than anything I could possibly imagine," his wife, actress Robin Givens, says in a taped television interview to be shown tonight at 10, PDT. She also said that he is manic-depressive. Describing her husband's "extremely volatile temper," Givens told Barbara Walters of ABC's "20/20": "I think that there's a time when he cannot control his temper, and that's frightening."

Consumer spending, say the experts, drives much of the nation's economy. So it's not surprising that economists, journalists and politicians hang on those periodic measures of consumer sentiment handed down from a number of sources. There's nothing magical about consumer confidence scores. They're taken from public opinion surveys that regularly ask Americans about the economy and measure changes from poll to poll.

The answer to the question of why Congress would spend time and money attempting to prove that a prominent athlete lied is found in a name. Taylor Hooton. The government might not have backed off the pursuit of the truth about Roger Clemens, anyway, given the nature of the high-profile hearing Feb. 13, 2008, that seemed to leave an odor of perjury in those hallowed chambers. But it really can't back off on Taylor Hooton. Hark back to March 17, 2005. That was the day Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Rafael Palmeiro appeared before the congressional Committee on Oversight that was looking into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

Lamar Odom sounded frustrated and hopeful at the same time. He sounded frustrated he hasn't been able to come to terms with the Lakers on a contract. But he sounded hopeful he and the Lakers will get a deal done. At the end of the day, Odom was asked, does he expect to be back playing for the Lakers next season? "I don't know," Odom told The Times in a phone interview. "That's why there are negotiations. I don't know. Of course I hope they can get it done. "It's negotiations.

'We can end a war. ... We can save the planet. ... We can change the world." A few years ago, if you'd suggested that a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination consider airing these sentiments in ads broadcast during the Super Bowl, most political pundits would have said you were insane. The Super Bowl, watched by nearly a third of the U.S. population, is about football, beer and machismo.

Marc Siegel's observations about the film "The Savages" reflect my own experience with a mother who died after a long and difficult battle with microinfarct dementia ["Movie's Details of Dementia Ring True," Jan. 14]. A few months earlier, the movie "Away From Her" presented a romanticized picture of a woman who had been placed in a fictional care facility that offered her a large, private, well-appointed room. It made no reference to incontinence, mood swings, others in the facility with devastating physical and mental impairments, nor the medical complications associated with the condition.

Fear and panic may finally be taking their summer vacation. The mood in financial markets worldwide brightened this week, no doubt to the great relief of the major central banks, which have been trying to halt a deepening credit crunch by pumping huge sums into the banking system. Never underestimate what hundreds of billions of dollars can do to make Wall Street feel better, at least for a time. The Dow Jones industrial average rallied nearly 143 points Friday to close at 13,378.

THIS may be a rhetorical question, but has Aaron Sorkin lost his brilliant mind ["Sorkin Takes the Blame for '60,' " by Patrick Goldstein, July 17]? As a huge fan of his work, I find it hard to believe that he actually said, "TV has a very measurable effect on our national mood. When TV gets bitchy and pissy, you find Americans getting bitchy and pissy too," and meant it. Yeah, maybe Americans in Los Angeles and New York, but they were already bitchy. Seems Mr.

If money's no object, check this out at Redfin.com: the Five Most Expensive Homes on the Market. Topping the category and listed at $125 million is a 12-bedroom, 15-bathroom estate with a guesthouse on just over 5 acres in Bel-Air. If money dictates all, take a look at the Five Least Expensive Houses on the Market. The lowest-priced listing, at $107,500, is a refurbished, two-bedroom, two-bathroom mobile home in a desert community for those age 55 and older.

A painkiller sometimes prescribed for menstrual cramps can also help prevent mood swings and general discomfort of premenstrual syndrome, researchers in Australia report. Fifteen women with documented cases of premenstrual syndrome took the drug, mefanamic acid, during the second half of their menstrual cycle and reported that fatigue, headache, mood swings, irritability, pessimism and general pain were reduced.

You sleep through the alarm. The coffee pot breaks and the bus whizzes by without stopping. You sit on the curb and begin to feel the unmistakable dawning of a bad mood. At other times, it's nothing you can put your finger on, just the underlying sense that all the cylinders aren't running, and things are getting off to a bad start. From Stony Brook, N.Y., to Long Beach, Calif., psychologists are trying to learn why our moods change and why we have bad ones. Although conclusions differ, researchers and clinicians at several U.S. universities are beginning to find some answers.

Re "One mad mamma-to-be," Opinion, Oct. 12 Heather Havrilesky's vitriolic Op-Ed article slamming the book "What to Expect When You're Expecting" did not strike me as funny. A normal, healthy pregnancy is a gift, not a "hell of gestation." Talk to any woman (or man) who has lived with the pain of infertility. She would gladly take on the heartburn, dizzy spells and hormone-induced mood swings for the joy of a healthy fetal heartbeat. Compared to hands-on motherhood, pregnancy is but a hormonally charged walk in the park.

The euphoria of Friday night's pulsating victory, in which the Angels pounded four home runs and 15 hits and moved within a game of Oakland in the American League West, dissolved into a depressing Saturday for an Angel offense that barely showed a pulse in a 2-0 loss to the Texas Rangers.