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Bipolar I Disorder Research Paper

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The National Institute of Mental Health describes bipolar I disorder as the occurrence of manic episodes that can last up to seven days, or experiencing a state of mania so severe that one must be hospitalized. With manic episodes, it is common to experience depressive symptoms as well, which can last two weeks or more. The NIMH defines bipolar II disorder as a pattern of depressive episodes with the addition of hypomanic episodes, which are not as intense and distressing as the manic episodes in bipolar I disorder. During a manic episode one might be experiencing feelings of having a lot of energy, feeling jumpy or wired, talking fast about a variety of topics, racing thoughts, and wanting to do risky things. During an episode of depression, …show more content…

(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 …show more content…

With the all the of popularity growing for the encoding of the protein ZNF804A located at chromosome 2q32.1, these researchers conducted their own study to find its relation to the formation of bipolar disorder. Zhang et al explain, “ZNF804A may play an important in processes such as neural migration, neurite outgrowth, and synapse formation” (Zhangl et al., 2015). Within this study, bipolar I disorder was found to be significantly associated with the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1344706 located in the ZNF804A gene. This was also to be significantly associated with schizophrenia. As mentioned previously, an overlap with symptoms has been indicated between the two

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