Hello,
I am a manic depressant and am on lomotrigine and sodium valporate which is helping well.

I have an aqaintance, who says he has "reverse bipolar" and this is something to do with bein in too hot a climate. Can you give me any information on this so i may help in some way. I have never heard of it myself, and cannot find it on any web pages...

Many Thanks


Dear Mr. S' -- 
I could riff on that, might be fun. Never heard of it either.  The heat/mood connection has been drawn though, by a light/mood researcher at the University of Washington, Dr. Michael Norden, and perhaps others.  For example, he looked at the time of onset of the major wars in history, and found that they most often started in mid- to late-summer.  Of course mid-winter is not the easiest time to rally anyone, let alone your massed troops, so there is a certain looseness to this logic: i.e. it's hard to separate heat from light! There, you see, I'm riffing. And it was fun. Thanks for your question. 

Dr. Phelps

Published February, 2006