Sunday, March 18, 2012

Antidepressant Induced Mania and Bipolar Disorder



Depressed patients treated with antidepressants can have an induced mania similar to the features of a person with bipolar disorder.

Previously diagnosed people with major depression and who have these manic episodes often have to be treated as actual bipolar patients.

Antidepressant medication can induce a manic episode in patients with depression, but the manic episodes are not considered to be bipolar disorder.

There are two major types of bipolar disorder type I and type II. Type I is distinguished by episodes of full blown mania while type II has a less extreme form called hypomania both have episodes of clinical depression.

Persons with induced mania from treatment with antidepressant induced mania more frequently have a depressive illness, with a greater occurrence of melancholy, and are more prone to seasonal changes( SAD), than those with either type of bipolar disorder.

 Prior to the medicine induced mania, the individuals show depression symptoms that are similar to that of bipolar persons without manic episodes.

Antidepressant induced mania is a serious consequence to treatment and should be considered as an indication of bipolar disorder.  To a certain extent medication induced mania can be a treatment complication, but the alternative is that it bipolar disorders are being under diagnosed. More research is necessary to find more conclusive results on this phenomenon.

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