I recently started drinking coffee. Not just coffee, but a lot (for me): today I had a double cappuchino in the morning and a latte after lunch. I am not addicted. Moreover, I do not even enjoy - I strongly do not enjoy and basically drink it like bitter medicine. Left to my own preferences, I would be drinking black tea all day long, and it contains far less caffeine than coffee. And I do drink several cups of tea a day, but it does not help me not fall asleep at work. Coffee does. So it is literally like medicine - a counteragent against my bipolar meds that cause heightened sleep requirements. When I see my p-doc, I will talk to her about caffeine pills - they release caffeine more steadily than shots of coffee and are more approptiate for me given that I am not a coffee lover, as I said.

So it would be interesting to me to read some solid research (like peer-reviewed articles available in PubMed) proving that caffeine is bad for bipolar. It would be purely academic for me, for I cannot NOT take caffeine - I do not want to fall asleep at work and be fired, coffee is a blessing in that it keeps me alert - but I would still like to read it for the knowledge. If you have it, please quote it.