Bi-Polar disorder

Mojo has an interesting post about the rate of bi-polar disorder in young Americans.

I had a look at how many people were on benefits due to a diagnoses of bi-polar disorder.

The figures for the invalid's benefit are;

1997 815
1998 922
1999 1003
2000 1243
2001 1500
2002 1733
2003 1953
2004 2170
2005 2306

Given all the hysteria over diabetes let's contrast those figures;

1997 618
1998 667
1999 710
2000 783
2001 886
2002 999
2003 1114
2004 1228
2005 1313

The increase from 1997 to 2005 for bipolar disorder is 183% compared to 112% for diabetes.

Some other percentage increases over the same period include;

Stress 265%
Drug abuse 211%
Depression 184%

I guess there are only so many things public health officials can get hysterical about.