I take offense to "having control groups is unethical".

Moreover, by "not treated at all" you merely mean "not treated with specialized medication for bipolar disorder". Throwing lots of stuff (talk therapy, catch-all medication, support groups, random tricks and environment changes) at the problem until one sticks can work. I'm also rather skeptical of professionals - they have experience, sometimes permission to prescribe stuff, but they don't seem to be all that awesomer than, say, a specialized IRC channel.