Individuals suffering from bipolar disorder face unexpected and sometimes perplexing symptoms daily. The disorder’s cause is still a mystery despite ongoing research. An imbalance in brain chemistry that affects mood regulation, specific brain characteristics, very stressful experiences, a history of abuse or trauma, and a family history of the disease or other mental disorders are some of the factors associated with bipolar disorder (Baldessarini et al., 2018). There are four basic types of bipolar disorder, each with specific features. The purpose of this paper is to assess the prevalence and neurobiology of bipolar I disorder, differentiate between bipolar I and bipolar II disorders, address specific groups, discuss FDA-approved treatment, and study medicines for the treatment of bipolar I disorder.
Prevalence and Neurobiology
A psychiatric disease known as bipolar disorder, often called manic-depressive disorder, is characterized by rapid changes between depressive and manic episodes. According to the National Institute on Mental Illness, bipolar illness often manifests in adolescence or the early stages of adulthood and affects 5.7 million persons in the United States (2.6% of the adult population) (Carvalho et al., 2020). The bulk of BD heritability is due to common, inconsequential polymorphisms. Many risk genes and genetic networks have been uncovered. Calcium signaling is important among inherited risk pathways and appears to have the most potential as a therapy. Digital technologies, as well as complicated mathematical and statistical studies, are being used to assess and interpret BD. These innovative methods of BD support and reflect a reframing of the disorder as one characterized by continuous instability in mood and neural circuitry.
Differences in Bipolar I and Bipolar II Disorder
The most prevalent bipolar types are 1 and 2. They also have a lot in common, particularly given that both can result in spells of hypomania and despair. There is, however, one significant distinction: mania is not a feature of bipolar disorder type 2; it is only a feature of bipolar disorder type 1 (Kato, 2019). This is significant since manic episodes can significantly impair your life and perhaps need hospitalization.
The DSM-5 and the ICD-11 kept the difference between BD-1 and BD-2. Both systems believe that BD-2 consists of recurrent major depressive episodes with mood and activity increases that are seldom more severe than hypomania and infrequently entail psychosis, especially during [hypo]manic stages (McIntyre et al., 2020). The DSM-5 does not, however, recognize the criteria for BD-2 that were provided for BD-1, including the polarity associated with the most recent events, the severity of events, the presence of mixed/psychotic features, or the extent of remission. Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that mood-stabilizing treatments can be effective in both BD-1 and BD-2. Although antidepressants commonly prove to be less effective and potentially destabilizing, antipsychotics and certain other antimanic treatments are generally not necessary for hypomania in BD-2.
Special Population and Considerations
Age and other physical characteristics may have an impact on how depression and bipolar illnesses manifest and are treated. The severity of mood symptoms in young children is less clear-cut than in adults, thus pharmaceutical treatment should be provided at modest dosages with thorough monitoring for adverse effects (Rhee et al., 2020). The diagnosis of depression in the perinatal population depends more on emotional than on physical symptoms because the latter may be a side effect of the gravid condition. In this demographic, treating mood disorders requires striking a fine balance between promptly alleviating negative symptoms and guarding against adverse drug reactions in children. For senior patients who mostly appear with chronic diseases or recent loss, it’s crucial to be sensitive to the possibility of depression. Due to age-retarded drug metabolism, mood problems may mimic physical complaints, and drugs should be taken carefully.
Clinicians may face particular legal and ethical issues while treating people with bipolar illnesses. For instance, due to their impulsivity, lack of understanding, and poor judgment, individuals with manic and mixed-mood states may be unable to offer informed consent or make wise decisions on their treatment (McIntyre et al., 2020). Moreover, some clinical manifestations, such as impatience, grandiosity, and del
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