mania

Examples of mania in the following topics:

• Bipolar Disorders

  • Bipolar disorders are debilitating mood disorders characterized by periods of mania/hypomania and periods of depression.
  • The elevated mood is significant and is known as mania or hypomania depending on the severity or whether there is psychosis.
  • As mania becomes more severe, individuals begin to behave erratically and impulsively, often making poor decisions due to unrealistic ideas about the future.
  • A mixed episode is a condition during which symptoms of mania and depression occur simultaneously.
  • Generally, hypomania does not inhibit functioning as mania does, and may even increase productivity.

• Explaining Mood Disorders

  • Individuals with bipolar disorder experience episodes of an elevated or agitated mood known as mania (or hypomania, depending on the severity) alternating with episodes of depression .
  • At milder levels of mania, or "hypomania", individuals appear energetic, excitable, and may be highly productive.
  • As mania becomes more severe, individuals behave erratically and impulsively, and may feel excessive happiness, excitement, irritability, restlessness, increased energy, racing thoughts, high sex drive, and a tendency to make grand and unattainable plans.
  • 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).
  • An individual with cyclothymia may feel stable at a baseline level, but experience noticeable shifts to emotional high durings hypomanic episodes (with symptoms similar to those of mania but less severe) and emotional lows (involving depressive symptoms that do not meet the criteria for a major depressive episode).

• Electroconvulsive Therapy

  • It is currently used in the treatment of major depressive disorder, mania, schizophrenia, and catatonia.
  • ECT is used to treat people who have severe or prolonged mania; however, it is recommended only in life-threatening situations or when other treatments have failed.

• Pharmacotherapy (Medication)

  • The first three groups of medications target specific problems such as mania or hallucinations.
  • Antipsychotics are used to treat schizophrenia, but also may be used for treating mania, delusional disorders, and other disorders.
  • Then with the 1950s came the establishment of chlorpromazine for psychoses, lithium carbonate for mania, and then in rapid succession, the development of tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and benzodiazepines, among other antipsychotics and antidepressants.

• The Schizophrenia Spectrum

  • The bipolar subtype is distinguished by symptoms of mania, hypomania, or mixed episodes; the depressive subtype is distinguished by symptoms of depression only.

• Current Issues and Debates in Psychology

  • ECT has been dramatically improved over time and is generally used as a treatment of last resort for severe disorders—such as major depression, schizophrenia, or bipolar mania—that do not respond to other forms of treatment.