Psychiatric Disorders: A Case Study

The symptoms of the co-occurring disorder may temporally be stabilized by substance abuse or addictive behavior. Individuals' anxiety levels can be reduced by either smoking marijuana or drinking alcohol. Symptoms of bipolar disorders, especially the continuation of down episodes, include the utilization of a variety of substances such as marijuana. Opiates and downers can numb the effects of their mood swings. Nevertheless, the temporary relief from these mental health symptoms leads to substance abuse and addictive behavior

Separately, substance abuse and bipolar disorder are two very serious conditions, and both have been proven to be caused in part by heredity. Shockingly, co-occurrence of both disorders in a single person is a very common combination, and it can be very dangerous. People who have both bipolar disorder and an addiction are understood to have a “dual-diagnosis” or “genetic overlap”. Often, each condition can worsen the symptoms of the other; having both problems increases the risk of mood swings, depression, suicide, and other violent behavior. Studies are still being done to determine the linkage between these two genetic ailments, but it is obvious that there has to be some relationship.

Bipolar disorder is characterized by unusual and sudden changes in mood, energy, activity levels affecting the ability to perform everyday tasks, impacting negatively relationships, professional life and often leading to suicide. Bipolar disorder usually show signs in adolescence or early adulthood and is a long term condition that must be appropriately treated in order to improve the life quality of the patient. Often people suffering from bipolar disorder also suffer addiction to drugs and alcohol and one of the reasons is that people with bipolar disorder sometimes try to self treat their symptoms with alcohol and drugs, which make bipolar symptoms worse. The causes of bipolar disorder are unknown, however most scientist agree that a

Jacobs past medical history is significant for bipolar II disorder. In addition, she has a history of alcohol and marijuana use. Ms. Jacobs in under the stress of living in a new city and attending a graduate level program away from home and the support of her family. Her current episode of symptom onset coincidences with these events.

Psychiatric mood disorders of such as Bipolar are often complex to diagnosis. Bipolar I is differentiated from Bipolar II by a history of at least one manic episode in a person’s life, with Bipolar II being diagnosed and characterized by a history of major depression with at least one episode of hypomania (Sadock, Sadock, and Ruiz, 2015). Bipolar is often misdiagnosed as major depression, especially in the presence of a dual diagnosis of substance use disorders. Individuals with Bipolar often have a history of self-medicating their mood symptoms of mania and

In this experiment there were 62 participants that were diagnosed with bipolar 1 disorder and 50 control participants that had no diagnosis of a lifetime mood disorder. The people that were participating were recruited from the Bay Area Community in California. Everyone was fluent English speakers and ranged between 18 and 65 years old. Neither with no history of brain injury or medical conditions of the central nervous system and no show of impaired mental status or developmental disability. Every

People with bipolar disorder face a suicide rate that is around three times as high as the general population (Oral, 2014) due to factors that their disorder present. These contributing factors include, but are not limited to: “early age at disease onset, the high number of depressive episodes, comorbid alcohol abuse, a history of antidepressant-induced mania, and traits of hostility and impulsivity” (Sobel, 2012). People may feel a loss of control in their life or illness because of these factors or vice versa. Around 10-20% of people with bipolar disorder commit suicide (Dinan, 2002), which makes the illness

Mental illness affects 1 in 5 adults in the United States. This amounts to about 43.8 million or 18.5% of adults in the United States ("Any Mental Illness Among U.S Adults," n.d). This shows how prevalent mental illness really is in our society. More specifically, Bipolar Disorder is found in about 2.6% of the adult population ("Bipolar Disorder Among Adults," n.d). Bipolar disorder ranges in severity but the majority of the cases are considered severe. Bipolar Disorder is broken down into three categories as follows: Bipolar I, Bipolar II, and Cyclothymic Disorder. For the duration of the paper, Bipolar I Disorder will be referenced. Bipolar disorder is characterized by manic episodes that may alternate with depression or agitation. The etiology of Bipolar Disorder is biological and environmental. It is a strongly heritable disease at approximately 80-90% heritability. Bipolar Disorder is related to neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin and their dysregulation in the body. Excessive amounts may lead to mania while too few may lead to depression. Environmental stressors or trauma also contribute to the development of bipolar disorder (Halter, 2014). The patient that will be discussed in this paper is a forty-one year old African American woman who was involuntary committed to Montgomery County Emergency Services (MCES) as a result of severe mania and psychotic symptoms.

(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

It has been said that people do not use drugs to feel good, but that they use them to avoid feeling bad. Regardless of anyone’s opinions on drug abuse, this concept holds a lot of truth in regards to substance abuse in those with bipolar disorder. Many times this abuse is referred to as “self-medicating”. This means the use of medicine (or drugs) without medical supervision to treat one’s own ailment. While self-medicating can be healthy, like taking pain killer for a headache, it can also be detrimental to someone’s health as many drugs have nasty side effects. Self-medicating can relieve psychological symptoms, but many people with bipolar end up abusing substances more often than those without it. In both manic and depressive states somebody with bipolar may be motivated to use. Someone in a manic state may be more impulsive, and feel invulnerable, inclining them to take illicit substance. Someone who is depressive may use to escape their feelings. Using illicit substances and finding pleasure or short-term symptom alleviation has, many times, lead to addiction or a substance abuse disorder. Bipolar disorder and substance abuse disorder are considered separate mental illnesses, but research has found a strong comorbidity between the two.

A patient is admitted to your floor with a history of alcohol abuse with emotional instability. The patient’s family reports they have noticed many changes in their loved ones life and presence. They report moods where he or she was overly joyous and then shifted to severe anger. As a nurse you wonder is there something else causing the patient’s emotional shifts. Bipolar disorder is a serious mental disorder that is characterized by sudden intense shifts in mood, behavior and energy levels (Dual Diagnosis, 2015). Alcohol use disorder is a condition that is diagnosed when a patient’s drinking causes distress or harm. Often both of these disorders can cause distress in various aspects on one’s life. What is the relationship between bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse in adults twenty to forty years old?

Bipolar disorder and substance-use disorders commonly occur in the same individual. In fact, bipolar disorder has a higher prevalence of substance-use disorders than any other psychiatric illness. Individuals with both disorders have a more severe course of bipolar disorder, including earlier onset, more frequent episodes, and more complications, including anxiety- and stress-related disorders, aggressive behavior, legal problems, and suicide. Bipolar and substance-use disorders share common mechanisms, including impulsivity, poor modulation of motivation and