Symptoms of Manic-Depression

Manic-depressive disorder is commonly referred as bipolar disorder. It is a mood disorder where one exhibits extreme mood swings that ranges from manic behaviors to depressive behaviors. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Manic-depressive disorder affects one in every 83 American people and about 2.3 million American Adults.

This disorder is known to be the second cause of worldwide disability after major depression. There are about 1.2% lifetime risk of having manic-depressive disorder ad about 1.5% risk of suicide. Suicide is the most fragile element of manic-depressive disorder. It is common for males, those with history of committing suicide, those who have a history of drug abuse, and those who just went out of the rehabilitation center.

The cause of manic depressive of disorder is not yet known but scientist believes that there is a strong relationship between this disorder and genetics. On the other hand, this disorder affects men and women equally and is found to be prevalent in highly educated people.

Manic-depressive disorder has three types. These are bipolar mixed, bipolar type I, and bipolar type II. In mixed bipolar, the patient experiences episodes of mania, normal mood, and then depression.  After depression, the patient goes back to normal mood and then to mania. In Bipolar I, the patient frequently experiences mania with only one occasion of depression. In Bipolar II, the patient frequently experiences depression with once occasion of hypomania.

Symptoms of Manic depressive disorder involve two domains. The first is mania and the other is depression. Mania symptoms are as follows: agitated moor, grandiosity, pressured speech, sleeplessness, exaggerated self-esteem, flight of ideas, increase energy, increase activity, easily distractible, poor judgement, and engages in high risks activities.

Depression symptoms are similar to major depression which include the following: depressed mood, lack of pleasure (anhedonia), tiredness, change in sleep pattern, psychomotor retardation, agitation, worthlessness, inappropriate guilt, hopelessness, difficulty in focusing, and suicidal ideation.

Misdiagnosis is a common problem that concerns patients with bipolar because of its similarity with major depression. The diagnosis of the disorder may take time since the patient should be noted to exhibit both manic and depressive episodes.

Treatment of manic-depressive disorder includes intake of anti-manic agents like lithium for a lifetime and psychological therapy such as psychotherapy. For medications, anticonvulsants and anti-psychotic agents can also be given together with lithium. Anticonvulsants act as mood stabilizers and anti-psychotic drugs for psychotic symptoms like hallucination, delusion, and illusion. On the other tone, Psychotherapy helps patient accept the condition and it is found effective to decrease the risk of suicide.