Bipolar Disorder

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

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness in which common emotions become intensely and often unpredictably magnified. Individuals with bipolar disorder can quickly swing from extremes of happiness, energy and clarity to sadness, fatigue and confusion. Bipolar disorder more commonly develops in older teenagers and young adults; it can appear in children as 6. The exact cause of bipolar disorder is unknown; there are two types of this disease:

Manic depression, also known as Bipolar Disorder is not your normal up and down mood change; it’s not like what most people experience, getting a little sad and getting over it. Instead it is extreme mood swing that “usually going from EXTREMLY happy to EXTREMLY angry” also include emotional highs and lows such as, depression and mania. Mood changes can happen as little as a few times a year or as often as several times a week; it depends on the person and their environment. At times, you feel very depressed and other times very relate. Bipolar disorder usually starts between the ages of 15 to 19 and rarely starts at the age of 40. When depressed or in a low mood you feel like you 're not happy all the time might even think that it’s not

Psychiatrists must do a full psychiatric evaluation in order to diagnose a patient with bipolar disorder. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) IV is used for diagnosis; the DSM-IV criteria for bipolar disorder must be met in order to diagnose a patient. Tools such as scales are very helpful in aiding of the diagnosis of the patient. Scales are a series of questions relating to the disorder in question and according to the score, clinicians can either confirm or rule out a diagnosis. Typical scales for bipolar disorder are: Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Montgomery-Asberg Depression rating scale (MADRS), and The Global Assessment of Functioning scale (GAF) (Psychiatry). When scales are repeated during the course of treatment, efficacy of medication can be assessed. As MDD patients are historically under-reporters of symptoms, it may be helpful for a close loved one to accompany the patient to treatment. Patients may also not recognize the extent of their behavior and it helps to have a secondary report (Butler).

Bipolar disorder is a mental abnormality involving an intense mood change from mania to a depressive mood in a matter of seconds. This used to be called manic-depressive disorder. During the manic phase, your will be very energetic, happy, talkative, have an increased sex drive, and even aggression. You could also end up spending a mass amount of money in which you didn’t intend to do. But during the depressive phase, you are very depressed, hopeless, anxious, sleepy, guilty, and sometimes even suicidal. People with bipolar disorder, often struggle with psychosis as well. Psychosis is the hallucinations and hearing voices.

Bipolar disorder has been gaining more and more attention over the last few years. With shootings on the rise, or at least the publicity of them, people are often pointing their fingers at mental diseases including bipolar disorder. An ongoing issue regarding mental illnesses, however, is the population has failed to fully understand what they truly are, the symptoms, and how to treat them.

Bipolar disorder is not an easy illness to detect. The patient might suffer for years before he or she is diagnosed and treated. Bipolar disorder can have a lot of results, some of these could end up with damaged relationships, poor jobs or school performance, and even suicide. Although this long- term illness can cause a lot of problems in patients, treating it correctly can lead the patient to have a full and productive life.

While the precise causes of bipolar disorder are not yet fully understood, we do know that

Bipolar disorder is an often devastating mental illnesses, with high emotional, social and economic impact on the lives of patients and family members [Jin and McCrone, 2015; Miller et al., 2014]. In recent decades, there has been significant progress in developing diagnostic methods for reliably diagnosing severe bipolar disorder (bipolar disorder type I) and some related bipolar “spectrum” disorders (bipolar type II disorder), and there has also been recent progress in identifying some of the genetic loci (through linkage and association analyses) which contribute to severe bipolar disorder. Controversy remains, however, about the diagnostic borders of bipolar disorder, particularly in relation to schizophrenia and schizoaffective

(2000) explained that the prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorder is between 2.6% and 6.5%, which can be compared to the prevalence of drug abuse which is 4.4%. Bipolar can be classified as a spectrum disorder because it forms an umbrella for bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, cyclothymia, and bipolar disorder not otherwise specified. Unfortunately, bipolar spectrum disorders often go undiagnosed and therefore untreated. With that, Hirschfelt et all (2000), emphasizes the importance of recognizing this disorder. With recognition, these individuals can seek intervention for this disorder and decrease its symptoms and its progression. One way to diagnose this disorder is to screen for it by performing a mood disorder questionnaire. The researchers created a one-page, self-report, paper-and-pencil inventory that can be easily evaluated and administered. The questions were derived from the DSM-IV criteria at the time, but have been updated to the newest version’s clinical

Bipolar Disorder is a mental illness, which involves hypomanic episodes, which are changes in someone’s usual mood. Originally, Bipolar Disorder was called manic depression because it does share similar symptoms with people diagnosed with depression. Bipolar Disorder is a severe condition because it can cause mania, which then causes hallucinations and paranoid rage. (Bipolar Disorder) Bipolar Disorder is classified into two categories, bipolar type 1 and bipolar type 2. Bipolar type 2 is more serious because there is more major depression episodes. (Bipolar Disorder) A study done by Revista Brasileria de Psiquitra, shows a higher prevalence of Bipolar Disorder type 1 but overall both are pretty low in the general population. (Clemente)