The promise of tranquility of mind

My recent post commented on the public understanding of the concept of bipolar disorder, at least as represented by internet bloggers. As I said in a book review, the aim of treatment of bipolar is euthymia, which means stable mood, neither manic nor depressed. In general parlance, euthymia is a relaxed state of tranquility. To quote from my review, "Democritus regarded this state of being as one in which the soul is freed from all desire and unified with all its parts. He believed it should be the final goal of everything we do in life."

No wonder people want mood stabilisers if this is what is being promised! However, mood instability is not well defined (see previous post). As I quoted in another previous post, "the term mood stabilizer sounds comforting and may reflect our fond and perhaps somewhat naive hopes".  Although a marketing ploy, there has never been any evidence that mood stabilisers are better than placebo in bipolar spectrum. It's also wrong and misleading to believe that mood stabilisers correct a brain abnormality.