Overview
Definition
Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression, is a mental illness that features extreme changes in mood. A person's mood alternates between manic highs and depression. These mood changes can last for days, weeks, months or even years.
More than 2.5 million Americans have the condition. Usually the condition starts in late adolescence, although bipolar can affect children. The disease afflicts people of all races, ethnic groups and social classes. You must get treatment. Bipolar disorder can devastate your life, damage relationships with family and friends, and hurt your career.
Bipolar I is the classic form, which involves recurrent episodes of severe mania and depression.
Some with bipolar never develop severe mania but instead have milder episodes of hypomania alternating with depression. This is bipolar II disorder. These "hypomanic" episodes are similar to mania but are less severe. These episodes must be clearly different from a person's non-depressed mood. For some, hypomania is not bad enough to cause problems in social activities or work.
Four or more episodes of illness occurring within a 12-month period could mean rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. People with that form of the condition may have several episodes within a single week or even within a single day.
Doctors now consider bipolar disorder to be a spectrum disorder (or continuous range). That means the person is always in a particular level of the condition. Different levels include: severe depression, moderate depression, mild low mood, normal or balanced mood, hypomania and severe mania.
Prognosis
Most people with the condition do respond well to treatment that includes medications and psychotherapy. Response varies widely from person to person - full recovery to complete lack of response to drugs. Bipolar disorder is a chronic recurrent illness for most people. People with untreated or poorly treated bipolar disorder have a suicide rate of 15 percent to 25 percent.
More on Bipolar Disorder Q&A: What Is Bipolar Disorder?
Types of Depression
In the Encyclopedia: Antipsychotic drugs
Antipsychotic drugs, atypical
Tardive dyskinesia
This article was reviewed and updated June 2007.
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