Constitution

Bipolar Disorder CIC is constitutionally bound to the following statement of purpose, which is documented by the UK Registrar of Companies. Consequently, all donations received by Bipolar Disorder CIC must be spent on achieving the following objectives:

(1)
Education of people living with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings about the causes, manifestations of these conditions and the treatment available. People living with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings are often under-informed about the causes, manifestations and treatment options of these conditions, which means they do not know how to look after themselves and how to avoid getting seriously ill. The Company will provide information about these conditions which is principally aimed at explaining complex scientific concepts in simple English which can be understood and integrated by people living with these conditions. The people living with these conditions will benefit by having a better understanding of their causes, manifestations and treatment options and thereby being better equipped to make healthy choices.

(2)
Education of the public about bipolar disorder, manic-depressive mood swings and other mood disorders. The wider community will benefit by becoming better educated about the causes, manifestations and lived experience of bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings. There is currently widespread misunderstanding about the condition, which is causing people with the condition to be mistreated and denied the support they need, and the social problems are worse than they could be: therefore, public education will benefit all concerned.

(3)
Education of the Psychiatric and other medical professions about the lived subjective experience of people with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings, as well as the latest scientific understanding of these conditions. It is important that the psychiatric and other medical professions keep abreast of the latest scientific understanding of the causes and manifestations of bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings. The Company Director is a PhD Candidate in a Psychiatry Department, writing a PhD Thesis about bipolar disorder, and the Company Secretary is a Professor of Neurobiology specializing in the Neurobiological mechanisms of bipolar disorder: therefore, the Company staff are well-informed. The Company will be researching the latest scientific evidence about the causes of these conditions, and the accurate and current scientific understanding of the treatment options available and providing information to the psychiatric and other medical professions.

(4)
Education of the medical profession, the public, and people living with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings about the “FM Compressor Theory” of bipolar disorder, and the role that the phosphoinositide turnover in neurons plays in mood swings. The community of people living with these conditions will benefit when the medical profession is able to make better-informed decisions about treating these conditions, and the medical profession will benefit from not wasting time, prescription expense, and care resources. Furthermore, the subjective lived experience of people with the condition will be researched, based on qualitative interviews with people with these conditions, and explained to the medical professions and Government policy bodies. The medical professions will benefit by being better able to diagnose and communicate with people with these conditions, and the people with these conditions will benefit by being better understood and therefore receive more appropriate treatment. The “FM Compressor Theory” of mood swings was theorized by the Company Director in 1999 and demonstrated in neurobiological terms by the Company Secretary in scientific experiments on phosphoinositide cycling in neurons which were published in academic journals. However, this ground-breaking information is not widespread and not understood by many people in the medical professions, nor the pubic and people with the conditions. Therefore, the Company will specifically be publishing information about this scientific information. Scientists and the medical profession will benefit from having a better understanding of bipolar disorder and being able to make better-informed decisions, and people living with these conditions will benefit from a clearer self-awareness and being able to make healthier choices.

(5)
Facilitate quantitative and qualitative research into new treatment modalities and new medicines for the treatment of bipolar disorder and manic-depressive mood swings. In particular, a plant medicine from the Amazon is being explored for its potential as an antidepressant that is uniquely beneficial for people with bipolar disorder because it does not trigger manic symptoms (unlike most antidepressants). People living with dipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings will benefit from the Company’s research activities by being able to have access to new modalities and new medicines to treat their conditions, which may be more effective and/or have lesser side-effects than the currently available medicines and treatment modalities. Medical professionals treating people with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings will benefit by being better equipped to treat their patients. Family, friends and carers of people with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings, as well as the wider community, will benefit from the Company’s research activities by being more satisfied with the treatment of people living with bipolar disorder and/or manic-depressive mood swings.

(6)
There is great misunderstanding and misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, because many psychiatrists simply do not know the correct diagnostic criteria for distinguishing bipolar disorder from common “unipolar” depression: this leads to many bipolar people receiving incorrect medication and thereby having bad responses to medication. Therefore, the Company’s website www.bipolardisorder.me will be publishing an online diagnostic application that is based on the American Psychiatry Association’s DSM-5 questionnaire, which will enable people with manic depression to diagnose themselves accurately.

(7)
There is currently no autonomous zone for discourse and consciousness-raising amongst people with bipolar disorder. At the moment, most advice about how to manage the condition is theorized and given by Psychiatrists that have no subjective experience of the condition. Likewise, most information and advice about medications prescribed for treating bipolar disorder is generated by people who have never taken these pills. The situation is like straight heterosexual people giving advice to gay and lesbian people about how to have sex. Therefore, the website www.bipolardisorder.me will include a private virtual chatroom and private online forum that is exclusively for people with manic depression to speak amongst themselves about how they manage their condition, comment about medication benefits and side-effects, as well as offer each other peer support during times of mental health crisis.