Bipolar Disorder Analysis

A disorder that takes one through a figurative rollercoaster of emotion with many high points of abnormal energy and low points of despair. A person would call this disorder manic depression or bipolar disorder. With symptoms like mania which is a period of elevated energy, happiness and irritably or depression that brings a feeling of hopelessness, insecurity and negativity; life can be hard. Firstly, this article will examine bipolar disorder including symptoms and whom it affects. Then, it is assessed on how it affects an individual’s brain. Finally, it is examined on how to ease the symptoms of bipolar disorder. It is crucial to study bipolar disorder because for the people it affects, it can be challenging and confusing. To understand
the people it affects, one needs to understand the disorder and it’s unique symptoms on each victim.
Emotions are a part of everyday life but what happens when these emotions become erratic?
Mood swings are also considered quite normal but living with bipolar disorder could mean occurrences of contrary emotions; mania and depression randomly and significantly throughout their day. Bipolar disorder can be classified by the intensity of these fluctuations with unipolar, bipolar 1, and bipolar 2. Unipolar is classified by depression episodes whilst bipolar 1 and bipolar 2 is related to the amount of mood elevation; with bipolar 2 being the class with the most mood elevated episodes (“Bipolar Disorder”, 2016). The article “Bipolar Disorder”, states that more than 1% of the planets inhabitants have this disorder (2016). Not only that but roughly 33% to 50% of individuals with bipolar disorder attempt suicide (“Bipolar Disorder”. 2016). That being said, bipolar disorder is a serious mental disability that is cruel towards its victims and it is necessary to be knowledgeable of bipolar disorder to understand this. Why should they be forced to endure
it?
Another question one could ask is, why does those with bipolar disorder have this mental illness? The article, “Amygdala-prefrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity varies with first depressive or manic episode in bipolar disorder” explains that the bilateral amygdala and prefrontal cortex have a great role in the mental illness (2017). They can prove this from an experiment they conducted on sixteen participants with first episode depression, thirteen participants with first episode manic, and the thirty healthy participants that have no indication of bipolar disorder. These participants were compared using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) between their amygdala and prefrontal cortex. The frontal cortex’s function is many; such as problem solving, motor function, impulse control, language, judgement, sexual and social behavior (“Frontal Lobes”, n.d). Whereas, the amygdala’s role is to be accountable for emotions, survival instincts, and memory (“The Amygdala: Definition, Role & Function”, n.d). Their findings were that compared to the depressive state of the bipolar disorder participants, the manic state of bipolar disorder participants showed a noteworthy decrease of rsFC between the amygdala and orbital frontal cortex. Not only that, the complete bipolar disorder group was compared to the healthy participants and the founding’s were that the bipolar disorder group also had a considerable decrease of rsFC between the left middle frontal cortex and the amygdala. This suggests that bipolar disorder is due to abnormalities in the hemispheric lateralization and that the traits of the bipolar disorder depends on if the abnormality is deficiency of rsFC in the amygdala- right PFC expressly the manic episode compared to the depression episode bipolar disorder (“Amygdala-prefrontal cortex resting-state functional connectivity varies with first depressive or manic episode in bipolar disorder”, 2017). Without doubt, one can say that bipolar disorder is an extremely multifaceted disorder that clearly effects an individual with such great extent that it diminishes the functionality of one’s functional connectivity between important features of the brain. The importance of this knowledge can assist the treatment and understanding of this mental illness. So, what cures bipolar disorder? Sadness, despair, and lethargy becomes energetic, erratic, and ecstatic and this circle continues. Any individual with bipolar disorder would wish to be emotionally rounded but sadly, this cannot be the case. Their personality is masked by the shroud of mental illness and their social life suffers from the perplexed society who cannot sympathize with not having the control over their own emotions. Currently there is no legitimate cure for bipolar disorder, but there is way to lessen the symptoms and improve way of life. The article, “Enhancing outcomes in patients with bipolar disorder: results from the Bipolar Disorder Center for Pennsylvanians Study” executed a study with 463 individuals with varying types of bipolar disorder were appointed treatment groups such as Specialized Care for Bipolar Disorder (SCBD) and the psychosocial Enhanced Clinical Intervention (ECI) at random for a period of one to three years (2009). The SCBD treatment program consists of recurring visits from a treatment team of psychiatrists and pharmacological treatment with variety of medication. While the ECI entails the same treatment as the SCBD program but with the addition of a clinical and psychosocial management system that includes education on bipolar disorder, the medications used to treat it, healthy sleep, and hygiene regimes. Randomly some patients were assigned to the SCBD program whereas others were in the SCBD and ECI programs. The results were encouraging; both study groups improved quality of life greatly. The improvement was even more so in the study group that was enlisted in to SCBD and ECI programs (“Enhancing outcomes in patients with bipolar disorder: results from the Bipolar Disorder Center for Pennsylvanians Study”, 2009). This study proves that treating bipolar disorder with a combination of medication, therapy, and education improves the mental disorder significantly. This proves that education of the treatment of this mental illness is important; that one should use a healthy combination of treatment methods for best results. Bipolar disorder can be very confusing for both individuals it affects and individuals it doesn’t.
The more educated one is on the illness, the better it can be understood. If society were to be more knowledgeable on what bipolar disorder is, why it affects one, and how to improve their quality of life then perhaps everyone would be more sympathetic towards this illness. They would know that it is not just some mood swing that debilitated oneself; that there is an abnormality in the brain that affects them as such. No longer will they wonder blame themselves for being so inconsistent and wonder why they are this way. No, they would know that bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness; not just being
moody.