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Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar disorder is one of the oldest known illnesses. Extensive research reveals that there was some mention of the symptoms in early medical records, which date back to the 1600’s. Bipolar was first noticed as far back as the second century. Aretaeus of Cappadocia (a city in ancient Turkey) first recognized some symptoms of mania and depression, and felt they could be linked to each other. Aretaeus’s findings went unnoticed and unsubstantiated until 1650, when a scientist named Richard Burton wrote a book, The Anatomy of Melancholia, which focused specifically on depression. His findings are still used today by many in the mental health field, and he is credited with being the father of depression as a mental illness. Bipolar is defined …show more content…

And lastly sleep deprivation – loss of sleep, can trigger an episode of mania. Bipolar Disorder is also a hereditary disorder. Children who have parents who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder are at a greater risk for expressing the disease than children who don’t have a bipolar parent. Children with uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents, etc are also at a risk for inheriting the disease. But this risk is extremely low comparatively, but their parents and doctors should still be on the look out for extreme behavioral change just in case. Bipolar I is identified by the length and severity of the manic and depressive episodes. The manic episodes must last for at least seven days or they must be so severe that a person requires immediate hospitalization. The depressive episodes last around two weeks. These episodes, both manic and depressive, must be an extreme, major alteration from the person’s normal behavior. An effective treatment plan for bipolar I includes medication and psychotherapy. The medication helps with stabilizing a person’s mood and the psychotherapy is for the prevention of relapse and the reduction of symptom severity. Many people with bipolar I take combination medicine treatment. The treatment includes a mood stabilizer; sometimes an anticonvulsant other times a non anticonvulsant, and an antidepressant, to help reduce depression episodes. Doctors prescribe both an anticonvulsant and an

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