bipolar disorder

Examples of bipolar disorder in the following topics:

• Bipolar Disorders

  • Bipolar disorders are debilitating mood disorders characterized by periods of mania/hypomania and periods of depression.
  • Bipolar disorder (commonly referred to as manic-depression) is a mood disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression.
  • The "bipolar spectrum" refers to the range in which these alternating moods may occur and includes bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymia, and other specified bipolar and related disorder.
  • The symptoms of DMDD resemble those of other childhood disorders, notably attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and bipolar disorder in children.
  • Bipolar disorders have been shown to have a strong genetic and biological basis.

• Explaining Mood Disorders

  • Mood disorders are psychological disorders characterized by dysfunctional moods, including depression, bipolar, dysthymia, and cyclothymia.
  • When most people think of mood disorders, they typically think of depression (also called major depressive disorder and clinical depression) and bipolar disorder.
  • Cyclothymia is considered to be a milder or subthreshold form of bipolar disorder, with the two polar states being dysthymia and hypomania (as opposed to depression and mania in bipolar disorder).
  • Major depressive disorder medications usually include antidepressants such as SSRIs, while bipolar disorder medications can consist of antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, and/or lithium.
  • Bipolar disorder is characterized by cycles of depressive and manic episodes.

• The Schizophrenia Spectrum

  • The spectrum of psychotic disorders includes schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, delusional disorder, and catatonia.
  • A person with this disorder has features of both schizophrenia and a mood disorder (either bipolar disorder or depression) but does not strictly meet the diagnostic criteria for either.
  • The bipolar subtype is distinguished by symptoms of mania, hypomania, or mixed episodes; the depressive subtype is distinguished by symptoms of depression only.
  • The DSM-5 distinguishes schizoaffective disorder from psychotic depression or psychotic bipolar disorder by additionally requiring that a psychotic condition must last for at least two continuous weeks without mood symptoms (although a person may be mildly depressed during this time).
  • In the DSM-5, catatonia is not recognized as its own disorder but rather is listed as a symptom of other psychiatric conditions, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.

• Introduction to Biomedical Therapies

  • Biomedical therapies approach psychological disorders as having biological causes and focus on eliminating or alleviating symptoms of psychological disorders.
  • A depressed person might be given an antidepressant, a bipolar individual might be given a mood stabilizer, and a schizophrenic individual might be given an antipsychotic.
  • These medications treat the symptoms of a psychological disorder; they can help people feel better so that they can function on a daily basis, but they do not cure the disorder.
  • Others, with severe disorders like bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, may need to take psychotropic medication continuously for effective symptom management.
  • It involves using an electrical current to induce seizures in the brain in order to help alleviate the effects of certain mental conditions, such as severe forms of depression or bipolar disorder.

• Depressive Disorders

  • Also, an individual may have a depressive disorder coexisting with a substance abuse disorder.
  • This diagnosis combines the previous disorders of chronic major depressive disorder and dysthymic disorder, as there was no evidence for meaningful differences between these two conditions.
  • However, episodes of full-blown major depressive disorder can occur during persistent depressive disorder (APA, 2013).
  • DMDD was added to the DSM-5 in 2013 as a diagnosis for children and adolescents who would normally be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, as a way to limit the bipolar diagnosis in this age cohort.
  • The symptoms of DMDD resemble those of other childhood disorders, notably attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and bipolar disorder in children.

• The Endocrine System and Stress

  • The HPA is important to psychology because it is intimately involved with many mood disorders involving stress, including anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, insomnia, PTSD, borderline personality disorder, ADHD, depression, and many others.
  • In post-traumatic stress disorder there appears to be lower-than-normal cortisol release, and it is thought that a blunted hormonal response to stress may predispose a person to develop PTSD.

• Eating Disorders

  • Eating disorders are mental disorders defined by abnormal eating habits, such as bingeing, purging, and/or fasting.
  • Eating disorders are mental disorders defined by abnormal eating habits.
  • Some people with eating disorders suffer also from body dysmorphic disorder, a disorder which alters the way a person sees themselves.
  • Eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS) is an eating disorder that does not meet the DSM criteria for anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
  • Some of the treatment methods include cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), family therapy, nutritional counseling, and medication to treat comorbid (co-occurring) disorders (such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bipolar disorder, etc.).

• Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders

  • It brings together several disorders that were previously included in other chapters (such as oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, intermittent explosive disorder, pyromania, and kleptomania) into one single category.
  • In addition, antisocial personality disorder is listed both here and in the chapter on personality disorders.
  • Almost all adolescents who have a substance use disorder have conduct disorder-like traits; therefore it is important to exclude a substance-induced cause before diagnosing CD.
  • Effects of ODD can be greatly amplified by the presence of other disorders such as ADHD, depression, or substance use disorders.
  • The disorder itself is not easily characterized and often exhibits comorbidity with other mood disorders, particularly bipolar disorder.

• Cluster B: Antisocial, Borderline, Histrionic, and Narcissistic Personality Disorders

  • Cluster B disorders include antisocial personality disorder, histrionic personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, and borderline personality disorder.
  • The individual must be at least 18 years old; there must be evidence of conduct disorder with onset before age 15; and the occurrence of antisocial behavior must not exclusively be during the course of schizophrenia or a bipolar manic episode.
  • ASPD is considered to be a difficult personality disorder to treat.
  • The hippocampus tends to be smaller in those who suffer from this disorder, as it is in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  • Another theory suggests that histrionic personality disorder and antisocial personality disorder could have a possible relationship to one another.

• Electroconvulsive Therapy

  • It is currently used in the treatment of major depressive disorder, mania, schizophrenia, and catatonia.
  • It has different levels of efficacy depending on the disorder it is called on to treat.
  • A meta-analysis done on the effectiveness of ECT in unipolar and bipolar depression was conducted in 2012.
  • Overall remission rate for patients with unipolar depression after a round of ECT treatment was 51.5%, and 50.9% in those with bipolar depression.
  • Discuss the goals, techniques, and efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy for various psychological disorders