Mood Swings

PHILADELPHIA -- Sylvia Seegrist goes to aerobics five times a week, takes physics and writing courses for college credit, works in the prison laundry and, according to her mother, is more stable than she's been for the last 15 years of her tortured life.The wild, dark eyes that glared out from the newspaper photos are no longer wild.And now, despite her psychotic rampage through the Springfield Mall with a $107 department-store rifle in October 1985 -- a rampage that killed two men and a 2-year-old child and wounded seven others -- and despite her sentence of three life terms in a state that doesn't parole lifers, Sylvia Seegrist hopes someday to be released.

One percent of all Americans - some 2.4 million people - have schizophrenia. An estimated 5.7 million have bipolar disorder. And 2.2 million adults have obsessive-compulsive disorder. What if you found out tomorrow that you could become one of them? Within two years, a Kentucky medical genetics company plans to market a home test designed to help consumers determine whether they are genetically susceptible to schizophrenia. The test, performed at home and analyzed in a lab, is the culmination of 10 years of research - and for better or worse, an example of what the brave new genomic world has wrought.

It took almost 15 years for actress Patty Duke to understand the condition that had caused her so much pain and emotional turmoil: suicide attempts, fragmented relations with friends and family members. She would cry for days at a time -- or scream for hours until, exhausted, she simply had to stop. Her behavior was so erratic her young sons would become alarmed if she locked the door to the bathroom.Magazine publisher Frances Lear endured three suicide attempts, three failed marriages and the same alarming mood swings -- times of extraordinary joy and the most inexpressible mental anguish.

Veteran Sun sportswriter Roch Kubatko has launched a blog about a range of sports topics, called "Roch Around the Clock." It can be accessed from the main Sports page at baltimoresun.com. We will run regular excerpts from his blog on The Kickoff page. After nine years on the Orioles' beat, I've been handed the keys to my own sports blog. The ride won't always be smooth, especially the first few miles, and I have a tendency to become reckless behind the wheel - which allowed me to blend in perfectly with the Orioles.

RESEARCHERS are now saying that PMS -- premenstrual syndrome -- is not a psychiatric disorder but one caused by the negative effects of a woman's hormones on her brain, and I'd just like to welcome them to the party.Where have you been, boys?Are any of you married? Know any women?Medical scientists have apparently taken the blindfolds off and can see what has been in front of them all along. It is an elephant, gentleman. And for five or six days out of every month, you can find it sitting on my nerves.

SAN FRANCISCO -- In the beginning there was the skin patch to prevent motion sickness. Then came the nitroglycerin patch to treat people with angina, the estrogen patch to help women deal with the symptoms of menopause, and the nicotine patch to help people quit smoking.Now, make way for the testosterone patch, to treat men who suffer from a serious deficiency of the male hormone.Alza Corp., the Palo Alto, Calif., company that pioneered the development of the $1.4 billion a year transdermal patch business, said yesterday that it has received the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to begin selling its Testoderm patch.

BERKELEY, Calif. -- For more than seven hours early yesterday, a well-armed gunman with an apparent grudge against American blondes took over a popular college pub, taunting and terrorizing 33 patrons after he killed one student and wounded seven other people, including a policeman.The gunman, Iranian-born Mehrdad Dashti, 30, was fatally shot in a brief gunbattle with police who stormed the pub at 7:23 a.m. (10:23 a.m. EDT), first tossing in "flash-bang" devices that permitted the hostages, many of them students at nearby University of California, Berkeley, to escape out the back and side doors.

Veteran Sun sportswriter Roch Kubatko has launched a blog about a range of sports topics, called "Roch Around the Clock." It can be accessed from the main Sports page at baltimoresun.com. We will run regular excerpts from his blog on The Kickoff page. After nine years on the Orioles' beat, I've been handed the keys to my own sports blog. The ride won't always be smooth, especially the first few miles, and I have a tendency to become reckless behind the wheel - which allowed me to blend in perfectly with the Orioles.

The standard portrayal of nursing homes on TV is as disgusting hovels filled with uncaring staff members where ungrateful children dump their unwanted parents, condemning them to lives of, on good days, dreary boredom.That maybe somewhere in some nursing homes, elderly people are actually well-cared for by a staff that is trained to deal with their physical and mental limitations in ways that would be beyond the abilities of their families in the home is rarely, if ever, considered as a possibility.

If your child will be entering kindergarten in the fall, welcome to the summer from hell.Is this an exaggeration? Take a look at this list of behaviors some early childhood educators say you may encounter:FTC * Mood swings. One day, your child dresses himself quickly, with no fuss. The next day, he can't put his shorts on.* Regression. It's been months since she sucked her thumb, except at bedtime. Suddenly, she's sucking any time, anyplace. If thumb-sucking doesn't apply, substitute wetting the bed, clinging to you in public, not going to the bathroom alone.

The Orioles needed a win last night, not a cruel tease. They needed a real victory, not the moral kind that bring forced smiles and an empty feeling. They rallied in the eighth inning, hinting at the end of their six-game losing streak. And they rejoiced at home plate in the 10th when it became official, players bouncing in unison, a manager needing a hug. Brian Roberts crushed the first pitch from New York Yankees left-hander Mike Stanton for his first career walk-off home run, sending a baseball deep into the left-field seats and the Orioles into delirium after a 5-4 victory that unfolded before a sellout crowd of 47,465 at Camden Yards.

There's the scowl, complete with clenched teeth and burning dark eyes. It's what an opposing pitcher must see in the ninth inning of a tight game. There's the frown, best delivered with a furrowed brow and complimentary headshake when a reporter asks an obvious question. And then there's the megawatt smile, an advertiser's dream if he only were somebody else. Forget about emotions on the sleeve, if you want to check Jose Guillen's mood, study his face. It's a mug that could become - maybe even should become - the face of the new Washington Nationals.

In the fall, the sun is bright, the air is crisp and the leaves are brilliant shades of flame. In this light, it's hard to find fault with fall or its follow-up act. But Muriel Strand is no fan of winter. "When I was a kid, the time between Christmas and President's Day was a wasteland," she says. "It's still glum." Strand's moodiness can hardly be classified as depression or even seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mental disorder related to the change in seasons. She simply comes down with a case of the winter blues, the doldrums, the blahs.

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- A small photo of Doug Linton's three young sons is tucked inside the right-hander's spring training locker. A crucifix hangs from a chain around his neck. Talk to him for a few minutes and the connection becomes clear.Linton's faith remains strong, no matter how often it's tested. And 1997 was an excruciating time for the pitcher and his family.As he sits in the clubhouse at Fort Lauderdale Stadium and slips on his Orioles jersey, Linton describes the reconstructive surgery he had on his right elbow that year.

Chita Rivera sings showstoppersBroadway legend Chita Rivera will sing and dance her way through the hits from such celebrated shows as "West Side Story," "Chicago," "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "Sweet Charity" Tuesday through May 31 at the Lyric Opera House, W. Mount Royal Avenue. Hours for the musical celebration of the Tony Award-winner's spectacular life in the theater are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 7: 30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $21-$42.

RESEARCHERS are now saying that PMS -- premenstrual syndrome -- is not a psychiatric disorder but one caused by the negative effects of a woman's hormones on her brain, and I'd just like to welcome them to the party.Where have you been, boys?Are any of you married? Know any women?Medical scientists have apparently taken the blindfolds off and can see what has been in front of them all along. It is an elephant, gentleman. And for five or six days out of every month, you can find it sitting on my nerves.

In the fall, the sun is bright, the air is crisp and the leaves are brilliant shades of flame. In this light, it's hard to find fault with fall or its follow-up act. But Muriel Strand is no fan of winter. "When I was a kid, the time between Christmas and President's Day was a wasteland," she says. "It's still glum." Strand's moodiness can hardly be classified as depression or even seasonal affective disorder (SAD), a mental disorder related to the change in seasons. She simply comes down with a case of the winter blues, the doldrums, the blahs.

Chita Rivera sings showstoppersBroadway legend Chita Rivera will sing and dance her way through the hits from such celebrated shows as "West Side Story," "Chicago," "Kiss of the Spider Woman" and "Sweet Charity" Tuesday through May 31 at the Lyric Opera House, W. Mount Royal Avenue. Hours for the musical celebration of the Tony Award-winner's spectacular life in the theater are 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, and 2 p.m. and 7: 30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are $21-$42.

With a long-projected lineup that a season of injury and illness had made more fantasy than reality, the Orioles took another decisive step toward a long-awaited division title yesterday. And maybe something far more satisfying.A nine-run second inning -- the team's biggest this season -- put away the Detroit Tigers early in what ended as a 12-8 beating, cutting the Orioles' magic number to clinch the American League East crown to three.After a week of questions, the Orioles slowly are receiving answers.