Psychology

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder

Introduction

In this study, we try to explore the concept of Bipolar Disorder in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is on Bipolar Disorder and its relation with human behavior. The research also analyzes many aspects of Bipolar Disorder with respect to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and tries to gauge its effect on the development to cognitive patterns among human beings. Finally, the research describes various factors, which are responsible for Bipolar Disorder and tries to describe the overall effect of this disorder on psychological dismantlement, faced by subjects diagnosed with this untreated phenomenon.

Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is the cognitive condition of human behavior in which people develop the confusion of state between the periods of times. These periods are termed in relation with a very good or irritable mood and depression. The swings of moods between depressions and mania can vary tremendously.

Facts and Figures

In the United States, the estimated lifetime prevalence of BD is 1-1.6%. BD I affect men and women in equal numbers; BD II affects more women than men. Women experience rapid cycling more often than men. Mean age of symptom onset is 21 years, but BD can occur at any age. Women are more likely to seek treatment than men. Among patients with BD I who are treated with lithium, 50-60% gain control of their symptoms; in 7% of these patients, symptoms do not recur (American Psychiatric Association, 2000).

Explanation

Bipolar disorder or manic-depressive psychosis is a mental illness characterized by mood alteration that occurs in bouts or episodes of illness that may be of mania, characterized by pathologically elevated mood and hyperactivity, depression, sadness or pathological melancholy, and occasionally mixed episode as consisting of a mixture of manic and depressive symptoms.

This disorder usually changes the mood of the people and, there are two phases of the mood that people undergo. It can be said that people sometimes feel happy and contented, and tends to be more enthusiastic and excited. This mood or the phase of the depression is known as "mania". Similarly, sometime people feel very down in the dumps and miserable, and act as being in passive. This mood phase of the disorder is known as Depression.

It is quite evident that people suffers through a sudden change in their mood, energy and behavior this is all because of bipolar disorder. Thus, the name bipolar suggests the opposite changes of mood on the opposite pole that is happy or sad, and down or up.

Types

Bipolar disorder affects men and women equally. It usually starts between ages 15 - 25. The exact cause is unknown, but it occurs more often in relatives of people with bipolar disorder. There are two types of Bipolar Disorder;

Bipolar Disorder - 1, are characterized by at least one manic or mixed episode.

Bipolar Disorder II is characterized by one or more major (severe) depressive episodes with at least one hypomanic (i.e., mania of mild severity) episode.

Bipolar Disorder types I and II are differentiated by the severe symptoms of mania in type I and the ...