Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder, also referred to as maniac-depressive disorder, occurs when individuals experience recurring episodes of unusual, often extreme and fluctuating changes in mood, energy, activity, and concentration. These are some of the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder:

Symptoms of a manic episode:

  • Feeling elated, jumpy, active, or irritable
  • Talking fast about a lot of different things
  • Excessive appetite for food, drinking, sex, other pleasurable activities
  • Feeling like you are unusually important, powerful

Symptoms of a depressive episode:

  • Feeling very sad, anxious, restless
  • Talking very slowly
  • Forgetting a lot
  • Feeling hopeless or worthless, thinking about death, suicide

Some of the causes of biploar disorder are:

Genes: can be inherited by family members

Brain Structure and Function: different brain structure than ones with no psychiatric disorders

Various types of bipolar disorder are:

Bipolar I Disorder: It includes severe manic symptoms which makes hospital care absolutely essential. Along with manic symptoms, episodes of mood disturbances mixed with depression are also common.

Bipolar II Disorder: This type includes a pattern of depressive and hypomanic episodes

Cyclothymic Disorder: A mild form of Bipolar disorder which includes persistent, hypomanic and depressive symptoms that do not last very long.