University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, Ohio

— -- One of our key focuses on our research treatment programs have involved the youngsters who are the offspring of a parent with bipolar illness. Bipolar disorder is a very heritable condition so we know that children who are the offspring of either a mother or a father with bipolar illness is at very risk for developing this condition.

As a result one of the key areas that we have focused upon is to accurately identify and treat these youngsters because we have learned from our prior research and prior studies that these youngsters may be more amenable to effective treatment early in the course of the illness. So we are currently recruiting youngsters into these treatment research programs right now in order to help us better identify these vulnerable youngsters but effectively treat them with so that the human suffering associated this devastating illness can be avoided.