Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder is a disease in which periodic changes from elevated mood to depression occur without any significant change in the external environment.

During the times of mania or elevated mood a person feels extremely happy, hyperactive, extremely energetic and sometimes highly irritated. Whereas in times of depression a person is surrounded by damaging negative thoughts about life, excessive crying and extreme feeling of hopelessness and loneliness

The symptoms of both depressive and manic cycles are severe and often lead to impaired functioning both affects judgement, thinking and social behaviour.

Patient suffering from bipolar disorder have harmed themselves in 30-40% cases and a significantly higher rate of suicide is also present.

• Of bipolar depressive episodes
  • Feeling of worthlessness or guilt
  • Thoughts of suicide
  • Harming one self
  • Sleep problems
  • Loss in appetite
  • Physical and mental sluggishness
  • Low energy
  • Feeling hopeless, sad and empty

• Of bipolar manic episodes
  • Inflated self esteem or grandiosity
  • Becoming more talkative than usual
  • Decreased need for sleep
  • Becomes easily distracted (attention easily drawn to unimportant happenings, objects)
  • Subjective experience that his/her thoughts are racing
  • Increase in goal directed activity (socially, at office, school, college or sexual performance)
  • Irrelevant non-goal directed activity
  • Excessive involvement in activities that have high risk for negative consequences (foolish business investments, sexual indiscretions, unstoppable shopping sprees)

E H, 27 years old, housewife, had presented with complaints of increased irritability, decreased sleep, increased self confidence and increased talkativeness for since last 4 days. She was on treatment for depression, since last 6-7 months. Her mother also had history of suffering from several episodes of persistently elevated mood and sadness with relatively normal phases between the two, throughout her life.