Complicated psychiatric diseases: Bipolar disorder

Some people have interesting and unnatural behavior and do not even realize that they suffer from complicated mental illness. Sudden elevated energy and mood can change in depressive condition, when a person is energized and happy during one day, while depressed on the following days. These characteristics are also accompanied by some symptoms, such as weak concentration, insomnia, complications during work and in focusing on some details. These are the symptoms of one of the most serious mental disorder, which requires sufficient psychiatric assistance and complicated treatment, known as manic depression (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2017). The changes in behavior are known as manic episodes. Any individual and even children and adolescents can develop this type of illness and it usually becomes a life-long issue. It can be quite dangerous as it influences the relationships with family and at work. Moreover, the affected persons are under the threat to commit suicide.

Bipolar Disorder: Symptoms, Treatment, Diagnostics

Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, is a complicated mental disease, which is related to episodes of mood changes along with changes in sleep habits, mental abilities, behavior, and personality (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2017). These alterations can vary from person to person, and they change in severity from manic episodes to depressive episodes, which can be mixed. It is quite difficult to predict changes or relate them with some issues. The high and elevated mood is known as manic episodes, while reduced interest in life and general apathy are characteristics of the depressive episodes. The episodes of manic are more intensive and complicated than the depressive ones; they are extreme and strong. During these periods, the person shows non-typical behavior. Therefore, patients are noticeable during this stage of the disorder. The manic episodes have such characteristics as feelings of euphoria and elevated mood. The patient may jump and run, experience sleeping disorders, but still have enough energy. During these episodes, the patients are more active than during normal days. Such individuals are usually very talkative with fast changes of ideas, and their speech is hard to follow. They comprehend any interruption quite irritatingly and even aggressive. However, they can do many works simultaneously. Taking a risk is usual and necessary for such patients. These conditions can suddenly change into depressive episodes. During the depression, people feel sad and can sleep for a long time. They cannot enjoy simple things and look quite worried. They can eat much or cannot take food at all, feel tired and exhausted. During the depressive episodes, the patients think about suicide and inevitable desire of death. Despite the variety of such bright symptoms, the diagnostic of the manic depression is not an easy thing.

The illness can be diagnosed only after a prolonged examination, because the doctors may believe that these symptoms associate with the different illnesses. In fact, the depressive episode is very similar with ordinary depression or even with the schizophrenia, substance abuse, thyroid disease, obesity, heart disease, and many others. The treatment of the disorder includes different approaches: therapy, medications, shock therapy, and others. Medications treatment should depend on the severity of disease and cannot be suddenly interrupted, as it may lead to complications. Therapy includes simple communication with the specialist, which help to manage the problems. About 2,6% of the American population suffer from bipolar disorder, which is more than 5.7 million people (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2017). The statistics also confirms that one out of five patients with the disorder commits suicide (Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, 2017). Moreover, women suffer from the disease three times more frequently. As bipolar disorder has sufficient genetic predisposition, children of the affected parents are under the highest risk to have episodes. Many articles and scientific investigations have been conducted to study this disease, as it is one of the most complicated psychiatric conditions.

Articles

The article by Hilty et al. (2006) titled A Review of Bipolar Disorder discusses the etiology and pathophysiology of the disease. It also provides a review of the management and assessment techniques. The article is a valuable source of information, since it presents special cases of bipolar disorder with different complications, such as mixed mania, comorbid disorders, depression, and non-adherence to the suggested treatment (Hilty, Leamon, Lim, Kelly & Hales, 2006). The authors of the article investigate the complications and issues, which make the process of diagnostic impossible. The researched work identified that the single type of therapy is impossible, since the illness demands a complex approach. Non-adherence to treatment is associated with the etiology and pathophysiology of the disease. The relationship between development of bipolar disorder and certain factors is identified with the help of statistics, which shows that the patients may develop some substance disorders. It was identified that drug addiction can provoke the illness. At the same time, the affected patient has higher chances to develop different types of addiction during the course of the disease. According to information provided in the article, women are very likely to have some addiction, mainly to alcohol and drugs. In children, bipolar disorder can be mixed or related with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (Hilty et al., 2006). Thus, the approach to the investigation of the reasons of bipolar disorder must also be complex. The discussed article is a valuable source of information about the disease, since it can help differentiate it from other diseases. It helps in identifying the features of anxiety and personality disorders, which can be quite similar with bipolar disorder.

The problems of diagnosing and treatment are further investigated by McCormick, et al (2015) in the article Diagnosis and treatment of patients with bipolar disorder: A review for advanced practice nurses. This article is a valuable investigation for the nurses. It provides not only a complex approach to the research, but also an overview of frequency, diagnoses, and management of the manic and depressive episodes from the perspective of the advance practice nurse. Moreover, it provides sufficient and valuable data concerning the relation between illness and primary care. Bipolar disorder is discussed form the perspective of clinical assistance and home patronage. The article confirmed that the disease has substantial lifetime prevalence in more than 4% of the population (McCormick, Murray & McNew, 2015). The appropriate management and treatment may help decrease the severity and allow for normal, socially active life under the control of medical assistants. The article is also valuable because it summarizes the detailed implications for the practice. The awareness about the burden of the illness, aspects of accurate diagnostics, and a choice of pharmacological and non-pharmacological treatment has a potential necessity and importance for efficient management (McCormick et al., 2015). The primary care providers control the majority of the patients with the disorder. However, the problem consists of late recognition of the disease and thus, delayed application of the required interventions. In addition, the majority of patients do not have adequate assistance, because of poor preparedness of the advanced nurses. Thus, the article is useful for such specialists as it helps to improve their knowledge about this psychiatric disorder. However, the nature of the illness is still weakly understood.

International Journal of Bipolar Disorders presents an article concerning the mood dynamics in the disease, which is related the nature of the episodes. The mood variation problem has been poorly investigated, as it is the subject of only few studies. The information about it is quite limited. Therefore, this article is a valuable research work, because it tests the episodes of mood changes due to different characteristics form the perspective of some influential factors and supporting circumstances and premises. This article is very important, because the presented data and investigations were very hard to attain. The investigation is conducted with the participation of several patients with a specific telemonitoring system, application surrogate techniques, and forecasting of nonlinear character (Moore, Little, McSharry, Goodwin & Geddes, 2014). The researchers identified that the episodes of depression cannot be identified from their surrogates and form linear dynamics (Moore et al., 2014). Moreover, it is difficult to identify and differentiate between linear and nonlinear dynamics. This article is one of few types of research devoted to an analysis of mood dynamics in patients with bipolar disorder. However, it confirms the necessity of further and deeper investigations with a larger sample size.

Thus, bipolar disorder is one of the most complicated psychiatric diseases. Its complexity is related not only with the severity of the symptoms, but also with problems in the investigation, diagnostics, and treatment. The symptoms include mixed reaction and non-usual behavior of the person. The patients can be aggressive and suffer from sudden mood changes. Up and high energy can interchange with fundamental depressive conditions with the risk of suicide. Diagnosis is also a quite complicated process, as bipolar disorder can be similar with the other illnesses, such as depression, addiction, substance use disorder, and even schizophrenia. Treatment may be complex, including regular use of medication and psychological therapy, which depend on the severity of the disorder. A variety of fundamental articles are present, which investigate disorder form the perspective of the advanced nurse practice, etiology, and pathophysiology. The illness is considered to be poorly investigated and demands further research with the participation of more patients.

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