Miss Bostock has bipolar herself and knows the devastating depression and risky mania that typifies the condition. 

She has turned to crowdfunding to secure the funds for her research into the links between bipolar and temporal lobe epilepsy, which will enable her to learn more about each disorder. 

“Anything we can learn about the two disorders helps in the treatment and management of both disorders,” she said.

“For example, in our first journal article we found that there were some similarities between the two disorders in precipitating factors, so trigger factors, for episodes and these included stress, sleep deprivation and anti-depressants.”

Thursday marked Bipolar Awareness Day shining a light on the disorder, which affects about one in 50 Australians. 

The fundamental cause of bipolar is unknown, but there known similarities between it and temporal lobe epilepsy and some bipolar treatments include anti-convulsant medication. 

Professor in psychiatry Ken Kirkby, who will supervise Miss Bostock as she undertakes her research, said although the similarities in the disorders have been studied separately, they have not been studied “head to head”.

“The main thrust of Emmanuelle's work is that direct comparison,” he said. 

The six areas of focus Miss Bostock has identified are; early warning signs to an episode, tigger factors for mania and seizures, self-induction of episodes, neuropsychology, sense of smell, and emotional facial expression recognition. 

Bipolar Awareness Day also heralded the announcement of a new app that detects early the onset of episodes of mania. 

SANE Australia developed the app, which will monitor a person’s activity on their mobile phone or other devices to track their mood. 

“It’s not like some of the other mental health apps where you have to go in and say how you're feeling today, or you have to have this interaction, this is all about monitoring your activity,” SANE Australia chief executive said. 

“You have to set it up in the beginning so you might for example say, ‘I think I need to be asleep between midnight and 6am … if suddenly theres activity at 2 or 3 in the morning the device recognises that ‘Hey, there’s a bit of unusual activity going on here’ and then you get a message directly to you and also you can get a message sent to a family member, a friend or if you wanted a mental health professional.”

Mr Heath hopes the app will allow someone with bipolar to reign in their mania before it takes hold. 

“The idea is that we’re trying to capture the early signs that there might be a period of mania about to take hold,” he said. 

“What it means is that we can get people back on course quickly, what tends to happen is that once you move into mania the risk escalates incredibly quickly because often there’s a feeling that things are fantastic and the person experiencing the mania … does not realise what's actually going on.

“The mania then plays out in very extreme activities whether it’s about spending money, high risk-taking, driving fast.”

SANE Australia is asking for volunteers to register for the trial, which will be run over several months. 

Mr Heath encourages Tasmanians to apply, as they are seeking a diverse range of volunteers from both regional areas and cities. 

The advancements and research like those announced by SANE Australia and Miss Bostock are likely to be welcomed by those with bipolar and their family and friends. 

“It can be a blessing and it can also be a curse to be honest, you can have fantastic phases of creativity and productivity and these can be followed by crippling depression where you can’t even get out of bed, or might be in hospital,” Miss Bostock said of the disorder. 

She said the unpredictability of the disorder makes it particularly hard for the loved ones of those with the disorder. 

To support and make Miss Bostock’s research happen, you can donate at https://pozible.com/project/the-bipolar-epilepsy-study. 

To take part in the SANE Australia bipolar app trial visit the website at https://www.sane.org/about-sane/sane-bipolar-app/sane-bipolar-app-sign-up.