This disorder has been passed down in my family for generations. My dad’s family had it and I do as well. Sometimes I do not like to talk about most days but since this course is about abnormal psychology and around this subject, I want to have a discussion. This disorder is quite serious and needs to be discussed and hope it is as interesting to you as it is to me.
Bipolar Disorder DSM Criteria
Bipolar disorder is a disorder that is a brain disorder that causes extreme fluctuation in persons mood energy, and its ability to function. The disorder has three different conditions. Bipolar 1, Bipolar 2, and Cyclothymic disorder. Bipolar 1 is a disorder you have full manic episodes and major depressive episodes. Bipolar 2 is a disorder you can have either major depressive episodes or hypomanic episodes and it can be less severe than Bipolar 1. The DSM criteria for Bipolar 2 is that you have more than one major depressive episodes or have one hypomanic episode. In the past there has been no history of just a full manic episode. The symptoms are just like any other mental disorder, and its deals with you being distress or you are impairment to function. The last and third disorder is Cyclothymic disorder that deals with brief episodes of hypomania and depression. Bipolar disorder could be in lined with depressive and schizophrenia disorders. The DSM criteria is that there are periods where you will have hypomanic symptoms and periods with depressive symptoms that do not meet for a full major depressive episode, patients could go without symptoms for more than 2 months, patients could have no major depressive, manic, or hypomanic episodes that has been present for about two years. The mood symptoms could be linked to another mental disorder and the psychological effects that have been present in the substances that are used to treat mental disorders and like Bipolar 2, there are clinically significant distress or impairment of functioning. The symptoms of the disorder are mixed and could involve extreme sadness, guilt and feeling worthless. While others are experiencing side effects of high energy and thoughts that are racing with speech and overactivity.
Course
Bipolar’s typical course is being recognized in adolescence or early childhood (Parikh 2, 2013). In younger people, there are symptoms that start to show up. The symptoms might be mistaken caused from teenage distress or angst. The symptoms will last until adulthood. Now, there can be cases where women during their pregnancy or shortly after it. It can have a high occurrence out of one mother to several thousands (Parikh 2, 2013). There might be some people who develop depressive symptoms after they are having given birth and symptoms could be severe, or even last to one to two weeks, where he or she may need to seek help. Puberty can be deal with bipolar by making a high-risk developmental period for onset or progression of psychotic disorders (Stakowski, Delbello, Adler 6, 2015). Puberty could be associated with mood psychopathology. The offspring could appear to break down under stress with clinically significant depressive symptoms that have been managed and adequality coped (Stakowski, Delbello, Adler 6, 2015). Anxiety and sleeping disorders could lead to depressive and bipolar mood disorders. From the book “Bipolar Disorder in Youth: Presentation, Treatment, and Neurobiology”, mentioned that there is a clinical staging, a model describing the development of bipolar disorder from stage zero, which are considered clinically well, while stage four is on threshold of a bipolar illness. The studies have shown that children could be at a genetic risk of developing bipolar disorder tend to move through clinical staging of sequence in a forward manner. Hospitalization is considered an emergency option for bipolar disorder care. If extreme cases do occur and someone is in immediate threat to themselves and to others. The warning signs that you should be looking for when dealing with bipolar disorder cases are dangerous behavior and mood swings, these can put you and others at risk when these are exposed. The authors of the book explain Dr. Wes Burgess’s work by mentioning that if you are wondering if hospitalization is necessary, it likely means it is time to go. Dr. Wes recommends that discussing hospitalization with from your health care providers to give you help for you and your loved ones. The information that it provides services that are available at hospitals contact information, names for health care providers, which bipolar disorder that you have, and a list of treatments for each patient or their loved ones. The function level of bipolar disorder is illness, genetics, illness severity, stress anxiety and cognitive impairment. The level of functioning perceived work ability, and current work status were evaluated among psychotic patients’ bipolar disorder, which is 99, which is low then usual. The bipolar groups have been associated with a disability objective work status and perceived disability correlated strongly to bipolar disorders. The work also has been associated with number hospitalizations and perceived works disability with current depressive episode.
Prevalence Rates
To study how the effects of bipolar disorder we first must study experiments. The prevalence rates for each age, gender, and culture of our study experiments. The prevalence among adults is based on The National Comorbidly Survey Replication, with an estimate of 2.8% of U.S. adults had bipolar disorder in the past year. Based on male and females, males have a higher rate with 2.9% compared to females which they had 2.8%, and the estimate of 4.4% of U.S. adults that have experienced bipolar disorder based on impairment issues among adults which has an estimate of 82.9% of people with bipolar disorder who have real serious impairment issues and is the highest based among mood disorders. While there are some that had an estimate of 17. 1 % for moderate impairment. The (NCS-A) also shows the prevalence of bipolar disorder among U.S adolescents from the age of 13-18. There was an estimate of 2.9% of adolescents had bipolar disorder, and only 2.6% had severe impairment. This time the females had 3.3% adolescents that were higher than the males which was 2.6%.
Diagnosis
There can be other disorders that could be mixed with bipolar disorder or have the symptoms as the disorder. Like for example mania, hypermania, and depression. Mania is when you have a lot of energy or feeling great about yourself. Mania is a serious condition that is diagnosed when a person experiences several symptoms associated with an elevated or high mood that go beyond what most people experience. Mania’s mood state is associated features have increased self esteem and grandiosity, a decrease in sleep, you are more talkative, a racing thought with a bunch of ideas, you become distractible, you have increased goal-directed activities with psychomotor agitation and there are some risk taking (Otto, Harrington, Knauz, Henin, Kogan, Sachs). Hypomania refers to a clear abnormal mood state with mild to severe symptoms of mania that may last for a few days or may be persist for many months. The difference between mania and hypermania are both severity of symptoms your life. Mania can cause enormous problems in daily functioning and often leads to serious problems with person’s relationships of work functioning. From the book “Living with Bipolar Disorder: A Guide for Individuals and Families Updated edition say, Hypermania can be pleasant state of good humor and high productivity. Associated features: are the same as mania lasting for one week. Hypermania last for about four days. Depression is more than just a sad mood. Most people might experience when they have a bad day. The major depression could last at least two weeks and produce a combination of physical and emotional symptoms that make it very difficult to function in life. Associated features that deal with depression are sleep disturbance, having diminished need for sleep, guilt with low self-esteem, a decrease in energy an inability to concentrate and make simple decisions, your appetite is low, the psychomotor can be retardation or agitation, high suicidal ideation and morbid occupation. The last is mixed meanings have the same symptoms as mania and depression and it can be associated in both. There three spectrums for bipolar 1 refers to a condition in which patients have more than one manic episode. Bipolar 2 refers to a condition in which patients have at least one hypomania episode. Cyclothymia refers to norms to bipolar illness that include a period of chronic mood instability, one year for children or adolescents and two years for adults.
Treatments
There are psychotherapy treatments that can help heal or support bipolar disorder. The first one is about physical self-care. You must take care of yourself first to get better. The ones that suffer from clinical depression and have physical symptoms. Like for an example, a change in appetite, disruption in sleep, inability to experience pleasure, fatigue, lethargy, heaviness, agitation (Bloch, 16, 2010). When you feel great physically, we become full of vitality, being energetic, being awake, and being alert. (Bloch 16, 2010) Because it is much easier to think positive and being calm with a good night’s rest. Some activities that you can you do are exercise, basically any activity that has endurance, flexibility or strengthen. Examples include gardening, hiking, dancing, yoga, etc. Diet and nutrition are also very important. Nutrition helps support the optimal functioning for you brain and your body. You must balance your nutrition so that way you be allowed to move on from your disorder. Good nutrition leads to multiple of things. Studies have shown that having too much sugar can foster anxiety and depression. It helps reduce allergies and cut the risk of diabetes. The loose connection with depression and food sensitivities. There are some cases that certain foods aggravate their depressive conditions. If you monitor your intake to see if there are foods that bring about adverse reactions. The last one that I found out that was interesting is maintaining adequate water intake. I have bipolar disorder and it has run from on my dad side for a while. Back then, I used to drink a lot of sodas and I would feel down or upset with myself because I knew that I could do better, but I just went on and kept doing it. I now know why. To maintain a good healthy body, you must drink a lot of water because that is self-exclamatory because our bodies are made up water. I mean we should be drinking at least two quarts a day. The only thing that is killing me is that coffee does not count. Which really sucks it helps waking me up or rejuvenating me. I have always heard from my past our body consists of 70% of water. While our brain has 90% of water. Water is the most essential to proper embolism, circulation and elimination. It helps flush out toxins and helps with mood, as well a cessation of physical symptoms such as headaches and increase our fluid intake.
Medication/Conclusion
Medication is another way to treat bipolar disorder. There are medications that can help with to treat the disorder like antidepressants. Some Antidepressants that The National Institute of Mental Health provides is there are medications help with such conditions like anxiety, pain, and insomnia. Examples include Fluoxetine, Citalopram, Sertraline, Paroxetine, and Escitalopram. The National Institute of Mental Health also mentions Anti- Anxiety medications also help reduce anxiety, panic attacks, or extreme fear and worrying and bipolar disorders and symptoms that deal with it. Examples that the website includes is Clonazepam, Alprazolam, and Lorazepam. But they can have possible side effects of nausea, blurred vision, headache, confusion, tiredness, and nightmares. The last is mood stabilizers. Mood stabilizers are used to treat mostly with bipolar disorder, but also several things like depression, schizoaffective disorder, disorders that deal with impulse control and certain mental illnesses in children. The National Institute of Mental Health mentions mood stabilizers that help with bipolar disorder include are carbamazepine, lamotrigine, oxcarbazepine. There are side effects that come with most medications like itchy rash, excessive thirst, frequent urination, tremor, nausea, slurred speech, pounding heartbeat, black outs, changes in vision, seizures, hallucinations, loss of coordination, and the swelling of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, throat, hand, feet, ankles, and the lower legs. There are ways to treat it. The only thing is that you have watch out for side effects because medications are not the best to treat them.
References
Parikh, S. V. (2013). Bipolar disorder: An information guide. Toronto: CAMH, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.