LAWYER CITES MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION

Sen. J. James Marzilli Jr. is undergoing treatment at McLean's Hospital in Belmont for a bipolar disorder, his chief aide, Cindy Friedman, said June 23. Marzilli's attorney, Terrence W. Kennedy, has told YourArlington his client has been diagnosed with a mental health condition.

Asked to confirm the Herald account, Kennedy wrote in an e-mail June 21:

"[H]e is suffering from a fairly serious mental health condition. The diagnosis was confirmed recently by his doctors."

Kennedy did not describe the condition further and has been asked to comment.

"I have no further information about the treatment or disorder," Friedman wrote in an e-mail June 23.

These reports followed one in the Boston Herald June 21 that said Mazilli, accused in a number of assaults, may be preparing a defense citing a bipolar disorder. The report says it is based on information from "sources close to the Arlington Democrat."

Medical literature describes bipolar disorder as not one illness but a general category of mood disorders defined by the presence of one or more episodes of abnormally elevated mood, clinically referred to as mania.

Individuals who experience mania also commonly experience depression or symptoms, or episodes in which features of both mania and depression occur simultaneously.

Normal moods can separate these episodes. In some patients, depression and mania may rapidly alternate. Extreme manic episodes can sometimes lead to psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations. The disorder has been subdivided into bipolar I, bipolar II, bipolar NOS, and cyclothymia based on the type and severity of moods experienced.