Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Introduction

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a common mental disorder (Cousins, Butts and Young, 2009). It is also called as manic depressive illness. Bipolar disorder is a condition that causes mood swings in an individual. These mood swings are between two emotional states that are opposite to each other. Mania and depression are two such states (Leonard and Jovinelly, 2011). Out of these two extreme states, mania is the defining feature of bipolar disorder (Barnett and Smoller, 2009). The severity in the levels of a manic episode may vary, ranging from mild intensity to high intensity. People with mild intensity of mania are excitable, energetic and highly productive (Beentjes, Goossens and Poslawsky, 2012). As soon as the episode of mania worsen the person exhibits impulsive and erratic behavior, with poor decision making attributes. Individuals experiencing worse episodes of mania have less sleeping episodes and they seem to be active most of the times (Beentjes, Goossens and Poslawsky, 2012).

The actual biological mechanism that could be held responsible for this swing between two emotional states remains poorly understood (Salvadore et.al, 2010). The milder form of mania is called hypomania. A perosn experiencing a hypo-manic episode does not suffer from a significant reduction in the ability to work or to socialize. The psychotic features like hallucinations and delusions are also not oberved in a hypo-manic person. Such people do not require psychiatric hospitalization (Barnett and Smoller, 2009). In cases of hypomania, the overall functioning of the body is increased. This increase in the functioning is believed to serve as a defensive mechanism against depression. A hypo-manic event is not considered a big problem unless changes in mood are uncontrollable. A hypo-manic episode may feel good to an individual, who is experiencing it and they often deny accepting if something is happening wrong with them (Beentjes, Goossens and Poslawsky, 2012).

The symptoms of a manic episode in bipolar disorder include overexcitement or overly joyful states while the symptoms in depressive state include extreme sadness and hopelessness. Sometimes both the symptoms co-exist in an individual that is confirmed as a mixed state. When mood of a person changes the sleep patterns, patient's energy levels and behavior also changes. The symptoms in the disorder could sometimes reach to such an extreme level that the person is not able to function normally at school, work or even at home (National Institute of Health, 2009).

There are two main classes of bipolar disorder. These include Bipolar I disorder and Bipolar II disorder. Bipolar I disorder is primarily defined by manic or mixed episodes. These episodes last for about seven days. The symptoms of mania that a person experiences are sometimes extremely severe and requires instant hospital care (National Institute of Health, 2009). The person also experiences depressive episodes. These episodes last for at least two weeks. Bipolar II disorder has a pattern of depressive episodes switching back and forth with hypo-manic episodes. There are no complete manic episodes or mixed episodes in bipolar II disorder (National Institute of Health, ...