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Bipolar disorder is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings, including emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression).
Bipolar mania (Type I) is characterized by a person feeling euphoric, full of energy, or unusually irritable. Increased activity levels accompany these feelings, decreased need for sleep, pressured speech, racing thoughts, inflated self-esteem or grandiosity, increased engagement in activities that could have harmful consequences, and being easily distracted (NIMH, 2023). These symptoms are usually present for at least 7 days (nearly every day for most of the day).
On the other hand, Bipolar depression (Type II) is characterized by symptoms such as feelings of hopelessness, sadness, lethargy, trouble concentrating, worthlessness or guilt, decreased energy, changes in sleep and eating habits, and thoughts of death or suicide (NIMH, 2023). These symptoms must be present for at least 2 weeks. Additionally, people also experience a form of depression known as bipolar depression with mixed features, in which depressive symptoms co-occur with manic symptoms that are not severe enough to be categorized as manic episodes.
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) is one commonly used screening tool for bipolar disorder. It is a self-report questionnaire designed to help detect bipolar spectrum disorders. It focuses on symptoms of mania or hypomania. Respondents are asked whether they have ever experienced a period of elated or irritable mood along with any of 13 symptoms of mania, whether several symptoms ever occurred together, and whether this caused any problems in their day-to-day lives (Dumont et al., 2020). However, the gold standard for diagnosing bipolar disorder is a structured clinical interview such as the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-5 (SCID-5). This assessment tool aids healthcare professionals in making reliable psychiatric diagnoses following the DSM-5 (Shabani et al., 2021).
The treatment of bipolar disorder, whether mania or depression, typically involves a combination of medication and psychotherapy. However, when it comes to bipolar mania, Lithium is the preferred treatment, or gold standard, if you will ( NHS, 2023). Other mood stabilizers, such as Depakote, and Lamictal are often used as well, especially when Lithium cannot be tolerated by a patient. Also, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), and family-focused therapy (FFT) have all been shown to be effective in managing bipolar disorder. Lifestyle modifications like regular exercise, maintaining a regular sleep pattern, and avoiding caffeine and alcohol can all help reduce symptoms and prevent the onset of episodes as well.
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