healthwise4all.com

One’s Manic Depression Is Another’s Bipolar Disorder

Manic Depression or Bipolar Disorder

We derive ‘manic’ from the Greek ‘manikos’ meaning mad from ‘mania’ meaning madness. What was once universally known as Manic Depression is now known as widely by the name Bipolar Disorder.

Manic Depression: Pole to Pole

In psychiatry, Manic Depression is the diagnosis applied to mood disorders epitomized by pronounced mood swing or swings from high to low and back. This is the classic presentation of pole to pole symptoms giving rise to the application of the term bipolar. A disorder with depression but without the mania is unipolar, (see our page Clinical Depression). Manic behavior most often is accompanied alternately by depressive mood swings. Some experience the mania and the depression simultaneously. Some swing from one mood to the other in rapid succession.

Manic Depression is a disorder of the young adult. Diagnosis of Manic Depression relies on the sufferer’s relating of his or her symptoms. A medical practitioner will observe and also have regard to the evidence of relatives and other third parties. The sufferer’s mental status will be assessed. Manic Depression may be very persistent and very destructive. For some, Manic Depression may embrace great creativity, goal-setting and achievement.

Hypomania in Manic Depression

The high is termed hypomania if milder in intensity, with mania, the more intense variant. Hypomania is, nevertheless, a symptom of Manic Depression and while milder, still presents as elevated mood, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, self-importance, frenetic thoughts, etc. Hypomaniacs can be very cheerful, very energetic, very awake and enjoy their hypomania. They can feel creative and omnipotent but overconfidence can make judgment questionable.

Generally, hypomania does not adversely impact the sufferer’s work, friends or family, or social life as do manic episodes. Nonetheless diagnosis is important since the opposite pole of depression is always a possibility with all the attendant risks.

Psychotic Symptoms in Manic Depression

Manic Depression, when characterized by severe mania, can exhibit symptoms of psychosis including hallucination. Manic Depression is sub-classified into bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymia (a mild bipolar form), and more according to the type and intensity of the ‘moods’. In the United States this ‘bipolar spectrum’ is distributed among the population as follows:  in their lifetime up to five per cent will exhibit very mild or partial symptoms; one per cent will experience bipolar II or cyclothymia, and one per cent of the population will experience bipolar I.

Heredity and environment are associated with Manic Depression, which is treated by means of drug therapy to stabilize mood, together with psychotherapy particularly when a degree of stability is achieved. Compelled hospitalization may be used in the more severe cases of Manic Depression with very intense mania, endangering behavior or risk of suicide.

© healthwise4all.com 2009, 2010. All rights reserved.