BI-Polar Disorder, Research Paper Example

Describing the Abnormality of Bi-Polar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder (BD) is also known as manic depression. A person who suffers from this experiences mood swings that rage from extreme animation to severe gloominess. At times, the changes in mood are frequent and sudden. This happens because they have a defect in the part of the brain that controls disposition. There are times when the shift of mood is so fast and the range is so large that the person with the disorder experiences both euphoria and depression at the same time, producing a kind of mixed state of consciousness (Ballas).

The disorder is a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis and presents itself in both women and men. As is the case with other health issues, there are degrees to which a person may experience bipolar manifestations. Some go through more intense periods than do others, allowing researchers to classify the illness into Type I and Type II and even as a mild form of the malady, known as Cyclothymia (Rogge). People with cyclothymia are able to stay connected to lives better than those with the more extreme Type I and Type II forms, because all of the symptoms associated with the disorder is less severe.

It is difficult to measure the severity of BD, and it appears that bipolar characteristics are sometimes hard to diagnose, so patients may suffer for years with it before they receive actual treatment. The key factor in assessing it lies in the sufferer’s constant instability in the patterns of their behavior, their sleep, and their activity levels, not to mention their moods. Recent research conducted by Lewis, Scott, and Frangu (464) concluded that impulsivity, a trait long associated with bipolar patients, may not be a feature of it at all. Instead, their work suggests that the severity of the symptoms brings out spontaneous decision making in many people diagnosed with the disorder.

Bipolar Disorder runs in families. Since there is a genetic link, scientists are working to isolate genes that may contribute to the illness. Common characteristics of BD patients with family histories include hospitalization for psychiatric reasons, concurrent obsessive compulsive disorders, common age at the initial manic episode, and the quantity and frequency of manic periods (National Institute of Mental Health). Studies of identical twins are of interest to scientists, in view of the fact that these siblings carry common genes. Many BD, identical twins have siblings that do not exhibit BD characteristics. The insinuated here is that there are biological factors outside of genetic research that hold significant answers.

A big question about bipolar predispositions is whether a person contracts it before birth, meaning congenitally. Most of the time, the first manifestations of BD do not appear until after a person has reached puberty or through young adulthood. Criticism has been levied against pharmaceuticals that have been marketing antipsychotics to those who treat children. David Healy, the author of The Antidepressant Era and the Creation of Psychopharmacology (1999), finds making children targets of such drugs “disease mongering” (14). Others have cried foul that drugs such as Prozac, and other serotonin altering agents, in similar fashion, have often been due to extravagant marketing campaigns that have prompted fad diagnoses. Bipolar Disorder cannot be detected prenatally.

The most likely prognosis, or outlook, for people with Bipolar Disorder is for physicians to prescribe drugs aimed at stabilizing their moods. Bipolar patients are fortunate if  they have family and friend support groups that can help them to monitor their condition and encourage them to take their medications routinely. Sadly, this illness has lifetime implications. A person, diagnosed correctly, will have to monitor the condition just as a person with diabetes has to manage that.

Known treatments for BD include such interventions as: Lithium, Valproate, Bupropion, Paroxetine, Lamotrigine, Risperidone, Inositol, Tranylcypromine, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Family Focused Therapy, and Interpersonal and Social Rhythms Therapy (Sachs & Thase).
Although there is evidence to suggest that it has been around for centuries, for only forty years have patients in the United States been helped through contemporary medical channels. Bipolar Disorder has been the official, preferred term for this mental illness since 1980, replacing the diagnosis “manic depressive” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (Today’s Caregiver). Hopefully, medical breakthroughs will continue to shed light on this problem so that it will be understood and that more people will receive treatment that will help them to live productive lives.

Works Cited

Ballas, Christos. Bipolar Disorder. 15 Jan 2009. U.S. National Library of Medicine. 21 Feb 2010. <http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000926.htm#Definition>.

Healy, David. The Antidepressant Era and the Creation of   Psychopharmacology. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.

Lewis, M., Scott, J., and Frangou, S. “Impulsivity,   Personality and Bipolar Disorder.” European Psychiatry 24.7 (2009): 464-469.

National Institute of Mental Health. Bipolar Disorder. Washington, D. C. Department of Health and Human Services, 2008.

Rogge, Timothy A. Cyclothymic Disorder. 24 Aug 2008. Healthcare Systems, Inc. 21 Feb 2010. <http://www.healthline.com/adamcontent/cyclothymic-disorder?utm_medium=ask&utm_source=smart&utm_campaign=article&utm_term=Cyclothymic+Disorder&ask_return=Cyclothymic+Disorder>.

Sachs, Gary, and Thase, Michael. Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder. 3 May 2007. ClinicalTrials.gov. 21 Feb 2010.<http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00012558>