Bipolar Disorder Clinical Features
Bipolar Disorder Clinical Features
Bipolar Disorder Clinical Features, psychiatric illness involving recurrent episodes of depression and mania/hypomania. Basically these people have periods of extreme sadness or euphoria.It affects up to 4 percent of the population. Generally people with bipolar disorder are at risk of attempting suicide 20 to 20 times greater than the general population. So it is an illness that requires careful monitoring, care and treatment. It is a leading cause of disability across the world. It is the 7th leading cause of disability in males and 8th leading cause of disability in females, giving that it affects 1 to 4 percent of the population.
Bipolar Depressive Disorder
Bipolar disorder has two kinds of mood states, one is mood elevation and the other is depression. You can diagnose bipolar disorder when someone is experiencing any of these states. The depressive episode is characterized by at least two consecutive weeks of sadness or loss of interest in usual activities or loss of enjoyment of things that were normally enjoyed by that person. Moreover there is a change in physical aspects like loss of appetite or increased eating, loss of sleep or oversleeping and the feeling of being tired. Muscular fatigue is also a symptom of this disorder. However, there are symptoms that have got to do with psychic aspect. There is difficulty in concentration and sluggishness of the brain. One feels guilty and has decreased self esteem. In severe depression suicidal thoughts also come in mind. So there are some cognitive changes as well.
Manic or Hypo manic Phase
In addition to depressive episodes there are at least 1 week of mania and 4 days of hypomania that prevail in a person with bipolar disorder. This makes the person be in a state of euphoria with increased energy. Or else the person can be irritable for no reason. These moods often occur in combination with each other and they often are. Beyond these one has to be experiencing being more grandiose, needing less sleep, have racing thoughts, multitasking in a way that is not productive, cleaning the house, feel restless in wanting to walk or exercise excessively. There is also an urge of spending money and acting impulsively. Some severe consequences may be losing a job, getting bankrupt, being divorce and also getting into jail.
Treatment
People with manic episode with major depressive disorder are categorize as bipolar one whereas people with bipolar two have severe manic episode with some depressive episodes too. It is not easy to diagnose bipolar disorder because it is often confused with unipolar depression. It is mainly genetic and if you get any symptom of bipolar disorder by the age of 25 you are likely to develop this disorder. If you have a first degree relative with this disorder there is risk is having this disorder. However there is more than just genes involved in developing the disease. Sometimes environmental factor like extreme stress may lead to this illness. Drug that work the best to cure or manage this disease is Lithium.