Ap Psych Alternative Final

S T E P H E N P O KO W I T Z

BIPOLAR DISORDER

WHAT IS BIPOLAR DISORDER

• A mental disorder characterized by periods of elevated mood and periods of depression. IT effects

SYMPTOMS

• Mania: During this a person feels or acts abnormally happy, energetic, or irritable. Make poor decisions. • Depression: During this there may be crying, poor

eye contact with others, and a very negative outlook on life.

AGE GROUP

• Bipolar Disorder begins to appear around the early twenties in most people but it can appear as early as elementary school.• Bipolar disorder appears before age 20 in about

one in five manic individuals.

DIAGNOSIS

• Using the DSM-IV a mental health professional will use signs and symptoms including but not limited to family history and presence of symptoms over time.

TYPES

• Bipolar 1 Disorder: The typically thought of bipolar disorder this includes the severe mood swings and symptoms mentioned above.• Bipolar 2 Disorder: A milder version of Bipolar 1

Disorder characterized by a milder version of manic episodes.

RISKS

• Besides poor decision making and the effects of depression there is a high risk of suicide (6%), and self harm occurs in 30-40% of those affected. • Substance abuse disorder is very often associated

with it.

COEXISTING ILLNESSES

• Anxiety disorder often accompanies Bipolar disorder due to its stressful nature and consequences • Substance Abuse Disorder often accompanies

Bipolar Disorder because the depressive and manic states encourages substance abuse.

GENETIC FACTORS

• Though they cannot find a specific factor that causes bipolar disorder it is widely known that bipolar disorder can run in families.• This has been confirmed by twin studies where

there is a 70% chance that the other twin also has the disorder.

EFFECTS ON BRAIN

• From postmortem samples of those with bipolar disorder we can see there was a different concentration of chemicals than is normally seen. It is not known exactly what these chemicals do.

TREATMENT

• Lithium and Valproic acid have been the only effective solutions but it is not known why they work, only that they seem to reverse the abnormal concentrations of chemicals that were mentioned in the previous slide.

SIDE AFFECTS OF TREATMENT

• Many side effects of treatment of Bipolar Disorder go away after a few weeks of treatment. • These side effects include, nausea, tremors, hair

loss, sexual problems, weight gain, liver failure, abdominal pain, etc.

T H E E F F E C T S O F H AV I N G B I P O L A R D I S O R D E R

SILAS DOGOOD

MANIC STAGE

• “During my manic stages I would go on large spending sprees filled with happiness and a feeling of euphoria”• “Duing my stages I sometimes use drugs,

alchohol. My favorite is cocaine. This stage lasts about 5 days” • “I always forget about my depression during this

stage”

DEPRESSIVE STAGE

• “I hate these stages, they make me feel as if I were worthless. I have trouble getting out of bed and I sometimes contemplate suicide”

NORMAL STAGE

• “I guess this is what you would call the “normal stage” or when I’m feeling normal like before the disorder really set in.”• “The worst part about this stage is waiting for the

next stage to set in. The anxiety of the next attack coming. It wears on me.”

TREATMENT

• “After my doctor formally diagnosed me he gave me something called lithium that he said would help me”

SIDE EFFECTS

• “The side effects of that drug made me nauseas for the first few weeks and I gained a lot of weight and had some abdominal pain.”• “The treatment is starting to work more and the

side effects are starting to wear off.”

POST TREATMENT

• “Sometimes I’m still depressed but it is very mild, its hard to tell between the different mood swings and I finally feel normal after years of treatment”• “My shopping sprees have ended and I feel

normal”

SOCIAL LIFE

• “Before I started my medication I had lost most of the friends I had before the disorder had started”• “The manic stages annoyed my friends and I

really didn’t feel like hanging out with my old friends when I got depressed”• “After explaining to my friends what happened

wit my disorder and that I was getting treated they are accepting me now and we are getting along.”