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Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, is a condition that affects one’s mood, emotions, and behavior. This section will describe the common symptoms of the disease, but bear in mind that there are a wide variety of clinical presentations of the disorder. A person with bipolar disorder experiences mood episodes. These mood episodes can include depressive episodes, manic episodes, and mixed episodes. During depressive episodes, individuals usually experience sad mood, diminished interest in usual activities, and disturbances in sleep, appetite, energy, and concentration. Manic episodes typically involve either extremely happy or irritable mood, accompanied by other changes in behavior, such as increased activity, decreased need for sleep, grandiose thinking, and racing thoughts. Mixed episodes involve the simultaneous occurrence of depressive and manic symptoms. Sometimes individuals with bipolar disorder experience psychotic symptoms (such as delusions and hallucinations) during the mood episodes, but these psychotic symptoms go away when their mood returns to normal. The duration of mood episodes typically lasts from a couple of hours to many months. Between episodes people with bipolar disorder often return to their usual functioning and personality. Some people with the disorder can enjoy healthy, stable mood for many years between episodes, while others rapidly go in and out of mood episodes almost continually, while still others experience mood episodes at frequencies between these two extremes. In the current popular diagnostic classification system (DSM-IV), a distinction is made between bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder. People with bipolar II disorder have so-called hypomanic episodes, as opposed to the full-blown manic episodes experienced by those with bipolar I disorder. Both hypomanic and manic episodes involve the same symptoms (e.g., elevated mood, increased activity, decreased need for sleep, grandiosity, racing thoughts, excessive involvement in pleasurable activities, etc.), but there are several important differences. The most important difference is severity; that is, hypomanic episodes themselves do not cause significant distress or greatly impair one’s work, family, or social life, but manic episodes do disrupt these things. There is some evidence that there might be some common genetic causes of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. This is not too surprising, since there is symptom overlap between the two disorders as well. Specifically, some people with bipolar disorder experience hallucinations and delusional ideas during mood episodes, while individuals with schizophrenia also can have these psychotic symptoms. Also, many people with schizophrenia experience episodes of manic or depressive symptoms. It is the timing and overlap of mood and psychotic symptoms that differentiate these two diagnostic categories. Treatment for bipolar disorder often involves a mood-stabilizing medication, such as Lithium, Neurontin, Depakote, or Tegretol. Those individuals with bipolar disorder who also experience psychotic symptoms might also be treated with an antipsychotic medication, such as Haldol or Zyprexa. Therapy, support, and education about the illness are also important elements of a good treatment plan. Want to learn more about bipolar disorder? Check out the resources listed below:
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