Bipolar disorder is considered to be a mental illness that comes with serious depression and mania. Also such a disease is known as manic depression. People with bipolar disorder suffer from wide temper tantrum with periods of normal mood in between. If you come across a person who has maniac episodes, he can experience an unusually and sharpened way of thinking, heightened energy, self-confidence and irritability changed with depressive episodes such as sadness, hopelessness and low energy.
Despite the fact that the reasons for bipolar disorder are unknown, there are researches that are conducted in order to understand the genetic basis of chemical imbalances occurred in the brain that lead to the disease.
It is very important to treat bipolar disorder that can be identified with the help of the symptoms, also it is crucial to make the correct diagnosis of the disease. There are such manic symptoms as euphoric or even excessive feelings, intrusive, obnoxious or provocative behavior; also a person can have delusive beliefs in his powers and abilities, flight of ideas, rapid talking, dysphoria and increased energy. As for depressive symptoms, they are the following: impediment in concentration, making decisions as well as remembering, weight gain or loss of weight or appetite, chronic pain or other symptoms that are not considered to be the cause of physical disease, bad mood or persistent sadness, parahypnosis and fatigability.
It was estimated that more than 2 million Americans experience manic depressive illness. Such a disorder can begin in early adulthood or even adolescence and continues during the whole life of a person. Sometimes the disorder is not recognized as an illness. If the manic depressive illness left utreated, a person can suffer from clinical depression and episodes of full-fledged mania.
The treatment of bipolar disorder can be done by means of psychotherapy as well as medication. Such treatments as valproate, carbamazepine, and lithium are considered to be effective as they reduce the manic episodes severity and also prevent depression.
