From the Dark Side of Pluto

bywena

Recovery from Bipolar Disorder

You are diagnosed with a mental disorder. You have bipolar disorder. The medications are beginning to work. You are no longer revved up or confined to your bed in anguish. Your worst symptoms have vanished.  You are in charge of your emotions again.

But you do not feel the same as you did before. You are uneasy about the side effects of the medications that make you feel worse in ways other than mania or depression. This is the fate of someone with a severe mental illness at times.  Each day of the rest of their lives will be like an individual with an unresponsive bipolar disorder.

Although there is a high success rate for treating bipolar disorder, surveys of outpatients at several clinics, however, found that a number were unemployed and some were on welfare or disability.

Response to medication is a commonly used for the success or failure of a medication. Response is when there is a significant reduction in symptoms.

There is no cure for bipolar disorder, but it is a treatable disorder. The treatment success rate for bipolar disorder is an approximately 80% according to recent studies.

It is important to diagnose and treat bipolar disorder as early as possible to help to reduce relapses and hospitalization.  According to researchers early intervention may avoid long term poor functioning in daily life of this debilitating disorder.

Individuals experiencing mania lose the ability of self awareness and do not recognize that they are ill. They may require treatment in the hospital to prevent self-destructive, impulsive, or aggressive behavior. Hospital stays vary due to the persons to medication; it may be 2 weeks to 6 months or more.

Many bipolar persons do not stay on their medications. When they start feeling good, in the manic episodes, they often feel that they do not need medication. Mania is the significant reason for not complying with their treatment plan. When mania strikes it is difficult to recall the times when there were either depressed or had a severe manic episode. The thought of reentering a hospital for outrageous behavior often can not be a factor in being consistent with medication. Unfortunately, many bipolars may have a few hospital stays before they finally learn that they have to take the medicine in order to stay well.

Then there are the ones who for reasons beyond their control are unresponsive to medication.  These people have to life with modified symptoms and taking a combination of medication that may have serious side effects.  Until the cure for bipolar disorder is found the disability rolls and hospitals will have an effect not only on the individual but society.

Women and Bipolar Disorder Facts to Consider

Bipolar disorder affects both men and women; the experiences and treatment can differ between the two.  Women who are pregnant, conception and the consideration of becoming pregnant have a risk of side effects caused by medication treatment. Women are prone to experience more rapid cycling. Factors such as estrogen levels fluctuate throughout the menstrual cycle. A large portion of bipolar type I women had regular mood changes during either their menstrual or premenstrual times. They were more irritable and had increased anger and tend to be depressed.  Increased estrogen may increase the risk of depression. Stress levels may possibly be the reason for increased risk for depression.

Bipolar disorder usually does not respond well to antidepressant medications as the only treatment. If taken alone, antidepressant medications may increase the manic episodes. They alleviate the depression but in the long run the chance for mania has to be taken into consideration.

The treatment of rapid cycling bipolar disorder is especially difficult. As mentioned above, treatment with antidepressants may precipitate an episode of mania, but may also increase cycle frequency it is shown that the mania drives the disorder.  Documenting daily moods while taking the appropriate drugs antidepressants or mood stabilizers proves to be helpful in treatment.  Minimizing the use of anti-depressants and to maximizing the use of mood stabilizing medication can avoid the complications. Mood stabilizing medications are used to treat manic, hypomanic and mixed episodes and aid in preventing more mood episodes. However, mood stabilizers are used primarily to treat mania. And like the problem of taking primarily antidepressants, rapid cycling bipolar patients will have severe depressive episodes. The consequences of the use of either mood stabilizers or antidepressant drugs both decrease one problem while increasing another.

Since a cure for Bipolar disorder is still unknown the answer lies in the treatment of each individual different specifically women.  Most often an effective medication or combination of medications will help the person to find relief.

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.