Introduction Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is quite prevalent in USA and
numbers are on a rise with
stressors of life on a rise. What is bipolar disorder? Bipolar disorder is a mental illness in whish one faces unpredictable mood swings ranging from depressive symptoms to manic symptoms. It is not necessary that a person has depression to be labeled as bipolar disorder, episodes of mania are sufficient. The most frequent age of onset is between 20 and 30 years but
variations are still present.
What are different types? There are basically two different types of bipolar disorder type I or type II based on
amount of depressive and manic episodes. For characterizing a person as full-blown mania one should have
symptoms of mania for one week and of depression for two weeks.
How to diagnose Bipolar disorder? To diagnose bipolar disorder one should have symptoms of mania or symptoms of mania and depression. The symptoms of mania are unrestrained buying sprees, talkativeness, inflated self-esteem, flight of ideas, sleeplessness, distractibility, etc. To diagnose depression
symptoms are recurrent thoughts of death, insomnia, loss of energy, weight loss, psychomotor agitation, markedly diminished interest, etc.
What are differential diagnoses? The differential diagnoses are hyperthyroidism, AIDS, Huntington’s, Wilson’s disease, alcohol abuse, etc.
What is
cause? The cause is not very well understood but it is hypothesized that patients are genetically predisposed. Some give
theory of deficiency of some chemical transmitters. Others give
theory of neurostructural changes.