Bipolar Disorder with Manic Depression

Bipolar Disorder with Manic Depression

Case Study 4

Latresa Jackson

Abnormal Psychology-SS440

Charitie Fuller

December 12, 2007

Bipolar Disorder with Manic Depression

What is bipolar disorder; also know as manic-depressive, an illness involving episodes of serious manic and depression with episodes that are like an unending roller-coaster ride form the highest peak to the lowest.

Bipolar disorders are of two kind, bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder. With bipolar I disorder is just that but with an experience of a full manic episode. Bipolar II disorder is when a major depressive episodes alternate with hypomanic episodes rather that the full episode, there are less severe. To tell them from the other you must have a symptom-free for at least two months between episodes.

This disorder is known to begin in the adolescence years or early adulthood and last the rest of your life. Bipolar disorder, a condition that affects more than two million Americans which have experience extreme mood swings with other specific symptoms and behaviors. There are three forms of episodes associated with this disorder: manic, depressive, or mixed episodes.

Manic episodes are those high ones, you are extremely happy, with irritability, and anxious, you experience talkative modes that are usually fast, loads of energy, and not enough sleep. When a person is having this manic episode it is common for them to act impulsively and take unusual risk, later they hate doing. With this episode, the person deals with delusions or hallucinations. With depressive episodes the person often are associated with feeling of low, emptiness or sadness, they don't have enough energy to get through the day. The person often doesn't take part in their interest like before. Their concentrating is all off, normal sleep pattern change, loss of appetite, and the thought process is all messed up, they are thinking about dying and kill themselves. Mixed episode consist of the two episodes combined that is experienced at the same time.

We often wonder what causes bipolar disorder. This disorder is thought to be caused by an imbalance of key chemicals in the brain. The brain has billions of nerve cells; these cells carry information from one to another, to keep these cells moving a chemical known as "neurotransmitters" is released. There are two key neurotransmitters that are needed to keep the brain functioning properly; dopamine and serotonin, which has major power over our emotional health.

Scientists believe when these levels are off, bipolar disorder comes into play, when the dopamine is to high in one part of the brain, it cause the person to have delusions, when dopamine is low in the other part of the brain can cause the person to lack emotion and energy.

Bipolar disorder like other illness is seriously hard on family members, spouses, friends and even employers. They often have to cope with serious behavioral problems and the consequences that comes with those behaviors

Bipolar disorder is known to run in the family and is even believed to be inherited in many cases. Despite numerous research efforts no known genetic defect is associated with the disorder. Although bipolar disorder has been diagnosed in adolescences it is not normal for this age. This disorder for this age group can be misdiagnose for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, so it is important to make sure bipolar disorder is diagnosis carefully.

Bipolar disorder has several contributing factors genetic being one of them. Family members that are fist kin relatives are seven times more likely to develop bipolar I disorder than those of general population. Those parents that have bipolar disorder have a 50% chance of have another major psychiatric disorder. Studies were done on twins and adoptions, twin demonstrate a concordance of 33-90% of bipolar disorder I in identical twins, with adoptions those studies proved children can still have a high risk of getting the disorder if their parents have either bipolar I disorder or some other major depressive disorder even if they lived with different parents.

Research of bipolar I disorder suggest that different genetic loci, each holding small effect, contribute to the affected phenotype. A recent wide study of genome found ten genes; each of small effect is associated with bipolar disorder.

There has been an increased in the number of studies during the recent years of structural neuroimaging of bipolar disorder, which was able to help understand the nature of cerebral abnormalities that underline this disorder.