Psychiatric Disorders

For many years now, most people have been left wondering what manic depression refers to. Well, to answer this question, manic depression is one type of depression that makes people have alternating mood swings. At one time the patient may appear to have extremely “high” (what is referred to manic) moods and before you know it, the patient is experiencing extremely “low” (also referred to depressed) moods. This unusual change of moods greatly interferes with your ability to function properly when undertaking various tasks. Manic depression can affect both men and women and most of the time begins during the late stages of teenage hood and if left untreated it may continue into adulthood. Unlike the other types of depressions, manic depression is usually genetically inherited from the patient’s family.

Symptoms of this condition are usually placed into three groups namely, the Manic episode, depressive episode and lastly the Mixed episode. The manic episode is often characterized by elevated mood occurrences accompanied by other symptoms that occur for the better part of the day something that sometimes continues to take place for a whole week. These other symptoms include a decreased need for sleep, an increased need for physical activities, poor judgment, having an inflated self-esteem constant agitation and an increased spending spree.

The depressive episode of manic depression is on the other hand characterized by low levels of mood swings and is usually accompanied by five or more other symptoms. These symptoms tend to last the whole day for a period of about two weeks or sometimes even longer. Some of them include high level of sadness experienced by the patient, a  sense of hopelessness, sleeping problems, regular fatigue experiences, anxiety and suicidal thoughts or behavior. On rare occasions, an occurrence of mixed episodes take place and the patient is left experiencing symptoms of both manic episodes and depressive episodes. For example, the patient may be feeling very sad and have a hopeless mood while at the same time feel energized.

Manic depression can further be classified into two main subtypes. The first sub-type known as bipolar I disorder, ensures that the patient suffers from at least one episode of manic condition after an occurrence or non-occurrence of an episode of depression. On the other hand, the second sub-type of this depression is known as bipolar II disorder. This sub-type, makes you be subjected to at least one episode of depression and at least one episode of hypomanic (a briefer manic condition) condition. However, there exists another rare manic depression condition referred to as Cyclothymia. This condition appears to be a mild form of manic depression and also includes mood swings although the manic and depression episodes do not get to be felt as severely as would have been expected.

Appropriate treatment including the use of mood stabilizers, Anti-seizure medication and Anti-depressants is usually highly recommended for persons suffering from manic depression. The reason for this is that, this treatment is often vital for reducing the severity and frequency of manic and depressive episodes. By doing this you are left to enjoy your life without worrying about having any of the episodes.