My first recommendation to someone with manic depression would be a full consultation with a nutritionist. They will be able to help you get to the root of your depression (the psychological angle aside) and give you a personally tailored nutritional strategy to help relieve your symptoms.

If mood changes are not owing to any drug intake (caffeine, alcohol or cocaine), the possibility of food allergy or hypoglycaemia should be carefully investi-gated. If your blood sugar levels are in serious imbal-ance, severe mood swings can result. Heavy stress may dissipate all the body' s store of zinc and B6 so that the person becomes pyroluric, producing excessive amounts of chemicals called pyrroles, which can cause extreme mood swings, among a host of other symptoms ranging from nervous exhaustion to depression, seizures and confusion. Many patients with a diagnosis of manic depression who have weekly swings in mood are merely pyroluric, and are easily treated with adequate zinc and B6. A simple urine test can determine whether you have the condition. This test is available through nutritional therapists but sadly not through doctors. A hyperactive thyroid can induce mania, while an underactive thy-roid can trigger depression, so thyroid function is well worth investigating.

Another possible factor in any type of depression is a lack of light. Some people suffer depression only in the winter and are diagnosed with seasonal affective disorder or SAD. Since light has a powerful effect on brain hormone balance, treatment via light boxes does produce beneficial results in some SAD patients.

Lithium therapy is another possible treatment; numerous publications cite it as useful in treating chronic depression, alcoholism, premenstrual depres-sion and hyperthyroidism. Under the guidance of a nutrition therapist it may be worth trying the amino acid tryptophan or 5-HTP in the normal phase and tyrosine in the depression phase.