Bipolar Disorder

Description

• Bipolar disorder, sometimes referred to as manic-depressive illness is a disorder of the brain that causes an individual to have shifts and or changes in in features such as their mood, energy and activity levels, as well as their ability to complete everyday activities ("NIMH » Bipolar Disorder," n.d.).

Prevelance

• According to the NIMH, an estimated 2.8% of adults in the United States had an experience with Bipolar Disorder in the last year.
• An estimated 4.4% of Adults in the United States will experience Bipolar Disorder to some degree within the span of their life.

Causes and Factors

• Bipolar disorder does not have a known singular cause, rather it is believed to be brough on by multiple factors (Nordqvist, 2017).
• Studies have pointed toward evidence that Bipolar Disorder is more likeley amongs families that have had the disorder in their history (Nordqvist, 2017)

Recent Research

• Currently, the most common treatment for Bipolar Disorder is through the persrciption of Litium. Research is showing that more studies are needed on this treatment method as long term responses can not be verified (Fornaro et al., 2018).

Recent Research

• Scientific studies are now beginging to show that there are strong connections between childhood ADHD and Bipolar Disorder later in life (Mistry, Escott-Price, Florio, Smith, & Zammit, 2019).

References

• Fornaro, M., De Berardis, D., Anastasia, A., Novello, S., Fusco, A., Cattaneo, C. I., … De Bartolomeis, A. (2018). The identification of biomarkers predicting acute and maintenance lithium treatment response in bipolar disorder: A plea for further research attention. Psychiatry Research, 269, 658-672. doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2018.08.034

References

• Mistry, S., Escott-Price, V., Florio, A. D., Smith, D. J., & Zammit, S. (2019). Genetic risk for bipolar disorder and psychopathology from childhood to early adulthood. Journal of Affective Disorders, 246, 633-639. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2018.12.091

References

• NIMH » Bipolar Disorder. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-disorder/index.shtml
• Nordqvist, C. (2017, December 7). Bipolar disorder: Causes, symptoms, and treatment. Retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/37010.php