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Mental Health News Articles
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| Posted: 7th August 2004 |
| Bipolar Disorder |
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Bipolar disorder is a form of mood disorder characterised by a variation of mood between a phase of manic or hypomanic elation, hyperactivity and hyper imagination, and a depressive phase of inhibition, slowness to conceive ideas and move, and anxiety or sadness. Together these form what is commonly known as manic depression.
Manic depression with its two principal sub-types, bipolar disorder and major depression, was first clinically described near the end of the 19th century by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, who published his account of the disease in his Textbook of Psychiatry. As described below, there are several forms of bipolar disorder.
It should be noted that this disorder does not consist of mere "ups and downs". Ups and downs are experienced by virtually everyone and do not constitute a disorder. The mood swings of bipolar disorder are far more extreme than those experienced by most people.
Note: Bipolar disorder is also commonly called "manic depression" by laymen (and by some psychiatrists in the twentieth century), although this usage is now unpopular with psychiatrists, who have standardised on Kraepelin's usage of the term manic depression to describe the whole bipolar spectrum that includes both bipolar disorder and unipolar depression; they now use bipolar disorder to describe the bipolar form of manic depression.
General description
Depression: Symptoms include a persistent sad mood; loss of interest or pleasure in activities that were once enjoyed; significant change in appetite or body weight; difficulty sleeping or oversleeping; physical slowing or agitation; loss of energy; feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt; difficulty thinking or concentrating; and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
Mania: Abnormally and persistently elevated (high) mood and/or irritability accompanied by at least three of the following symptoms (four if the mood is merely irritable): overly-inflated self-esteem; decreased need for sleep; increased talkativeness; racing thoughts; distractibility; increased goal-directed activity such as shopping; physical agitation; hypersexuality and excessive involvement in risky behaviors or activities. |
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