Types of Bipolar Disorder -BIPOLAR I

Bipolar disorder  wears many masks. It can be happy, sad, fearful, confident, sexy, or furious. It can seduce strangers, intimate bank tellers, throw extravagant parties, and steal your joy late into the night. However, psychiatrist have managed to bring order to the disorder by grouping the many manifestations of bipolar disorder into four main categories: Bipolar I, Bipolar II, Cyclothymic disorder, and Bipolar NOS (Not otherwise Specified). Don´t take  the labels personally; they describe the disease, not the person, and doctors use them to ensure that you receive appropriate, consistent treatment. Medical doctors, use similar labels all the time to make sure that if you go into surgery to have your tonsils removed, for example, you don´t wake up missing a kidney.


Bipolar I
To earn the Bipolar I label, you must experience at least one bout of mania or a mixed-mood episode sometime during your life. The manic episode must last at least one week, or it must be serious enough to require hospitalization. It also must negatively affect some aspect of your life- your marriage, your career, or your life savings- to some degree. Depression isn´t required, although many people with Bipolar I have experienced a bout or two of major depression at some point in their lives.
To be considered a genuine manic episode, the mania must satisfy the following conditions:

• The mania can´t be drug-induced. For example, if you were taking an antidepressant, steroid, or cocaine, at the time, the manic symptoms don´t equal a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
• Doctors can´t attribute the mania to an identifiable medical condition. If you have a hormone imbalance that may be responsible for the manic symptoms, for example, your doctor can´t make a definite diagnosis of bipolar disorder until you get that condition under control.
• Doctors can´t attribute the mania to schizoaffective disorder. Schizoaffective disorder is a different illness. Its symptoms and treatments can be similar to those of bipolar disorder, but other aspects, such as the type and duration of the psychoses (including delusions or hallucinations), are very different.

Many of the medicines designed to make you feel better can worsen your condition or alter the course of your illness. SSRI (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor) antidepressants, for example, have helped thousands of people overcome debilitating depressions, but they´ve also induced mania in others. If an antidepressant induces mania, it may be a sign that you have bipolar disorder. Your doctor is likely to become much more cautious when prescribing antidepressants, and she may consider adding a mood stabilizer.

Source: Bipolar Disorder, Candida Flink, MD, Joe Kraynak