Brief introduction to bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness dominated by mood disorders. When the mood is extremely high, it is called a manic state; when the mood is extremely low, it is called a depressive state.

Characteristics of Mania

A “manic state” or “manic episode” is a state of elatedor irritable mood that is present throughout the day for at least a week and can be viewed by emotion, thought, attitude, movement, speech, behavior, and physical state:

• Emotion: They are consciously happy, excited, relaxed, cheerful, often overjoyed for no reason, occasionally very irritable, angry.
• thought: They have inflated or exaggerated self-esteem, believing they have superpower, great plans, wealth, status, and boasting of being a star or god, accompanied by flight of idea or overwhelming feelings.
• Attitude: They become nosy, bold, overconfident and generous.
• Movement: They are walking around all day, doing things all the time, and have decreased sleep needs (e.g. sleeping for only 3 hours is enough for them).
• Speech: They are uncharacteristically talking non-stop to the extent that their voice is hoarse.
• Behavior: They are spending money, donating money, investing like mad, doing unusual and unwise things.
• Physical state: From shy and introverted to extremely enthusiastic, even affecting sleep at night.

Characteristics of Depression

A "depressive state" or "depressive episode" refers to the state of being extremely depressed and unhappy, and losing interest or pleasure in all activities for at least 2 weeks. It can be viewed from emotion, Thought, attitude, speech, movement and physical state:

• Emotion: They are depressed, listless and sad all day.
• Thought: They become pessimistic, negative, sad, and even feel that they have committed a heinous crime and that they deserve to die, or feel that they have a serious, incurable disease, and may have suicidal thoughts or suicidal behavior.
• Attitude: All day long, it is obvious that they are not interested in everything. They are extremely pessimistic and negative. Their concentration drops significantly and they are hesitant to deal with things.
• Speech: They become silent, and when they do speak, they speak very slowly or with pauses, often in a low voice that makes it hard to hear what they are saying.
• Movement: They move slowly, often sit in a daze, sleep in bed all day, feel lethargic all day, sleepless at night.
• Physical state: They have significant weight loss, poor appetite, constipation, a flagging libido, impotence in men, cessation of menstruation in women, and physical fatigue and leaden feeling in limbs throughout the day.

Bipolar disorder treatment

• Medical treatement
• The phenomenon of bipolar disorder may be related to the dysfunction of neurotransmitters between certain nerve cells in the brain. Therefore, the treatment of bipolar disorder mainly uses mood stabilizers, such as lithium salts.
• During the acute manic phase, antipsychotic medications may be used to control the agitation. The main treatment for depression is antidepressants, and it usually takes 2 to 3 weeks for the treatment effect to be noticeable.
• Non-drug treatment
• Psychological and family therapy is an important part of the treatment of bipolar disorder.
• Research indicates that life events and psychological conflicts may be one of the causes of the disease. Therefore, when disease control reaches remission, psychological and family treatments can be implemented in conjunction. This has effects on learning to prevent disease recurrence, early detection of signs of recurrence, personal adaptation, care of family members, and handling of financial burdens.

After long-term treatment, about two-thirds of patients with bipolar disorder recover well and can live normally under the stable control of drugs, and about one-third of patients have their daily life functions affected. However, early detection and treatment in the psychiatry department will improve the prognosis of the disease.