Thank you, Blahpolar Diaries, for informing me about ALPIM in her blog post nudge nudge link link. I tracked down the original SUNY press release, which I quote here.
In the study, published in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, the researchers proposed the existence of a spectrum syndrome comprising a core anxiety disorder and four related domains, for which they have coined the term ALPIM:
A = Anxiety disorder (mostly panic disorder);
L = Ligamentous laxity (joint hypermobility syndrome, scoliosis, double-jointedness, mitral valve prolapse, easy bruising);
P = Pain (fibromyalgia, migraine and chronic daily headache, irritable bowel syndrome, prostatitis/cystitis);
I = Immune disorders (hypothyroidism, asthma, nasal allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome); and
M = Mood disorders (major depression, Bipolar II and Bipolar III disorder, tachyphylaxis. Two thirds of patients in the study with mood disorder had diagnosable bipolar disorder and most of those patients had lost response to antidepressants).
Bipolar III is cyclothymia, a “milder” form of bipolar than bipolar II.
Should you want to read the journal article, I purchased the pdf version: A Novel Anxiety and Affective Spectrum Disorder of Mind and Body—The ALPIM (Anxiety-Laxity-Pain-Immune-Mood) Syndrome: A Preliminary Report (J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci. 2015 Spring;27(2):93-103. doi: 10.1176/appi.neuropsych.14060132). No copyright infringement intended.
Leave a Reply