Depressive and Bipolar Disorders Essay

Depressive and Bipolar disorders are disorders that mostly affect our moods. These forms of disorders differ due to differences in their symptoms characteristics. They all change our thinking, energy and how we operate on our daily chores. Mood swings are the most common symptoms experienced by both depressive and bipolar patients. To be diagnosed with a depressive disorder you must be experiencing somber mood, low self-esteem with low motivation to work feelings that should last for at least two weeks concurrently and some may even last for up to two years like the case of dysthymia. Many women after giving birth experience Postpartum depression whereby their depression last longer than the typical baby blues. Psychotic depression patients may even start to experience hallucinations. Bipolar Disorders in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) criteria are not categorized under depressions, since their patients must also experience high moods moments, unlike the depressed patients. They may range from manic episodes which are extremely high moments associated with exaggerated happiness and high motivation towards work to depression periods.Bipolar 1 disorder patients suffer manic events that last for at least one-week as well as depressive symptoms for at least two weeks. Other forms of Bipolar Disorders experience moderate-high mood feelings termed as hypomanic episodes like Bipolar 2 and Cyclothymic disorders.

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Depressed patients may pass through conditions like always having a sad feeling, cursing themselves, hopeless, low motivation to work, very dormant, poor concentration, problems in sleeping, feeling tired and may also include suicide thoughts or attempts. These symptoms must be persistent for at least two weeks to get diagnosed with a depressive disorder.

Bipolar disorder patients experience the same symptoms as depressive patient, but they must also undergo extremely high moments, seem jumpy, a lot of energy, motivated at work. These people may sometimes think of themselves as very popular and having a lot of money or having special powers. Not everyone who experiences these symptoms is diagnosed automatically to have this sickness, what determines is the severity and frequency of how the symptoms occur plus psychiatrists use DSM-5 to code the type of your disorder (Vancampfort et.al 2015). In adults, these symptoms occur in the presence of other diseases like cancer, diabetes or substance abuse. Some factors like genetic and family history, brain formation may increase the chances of these disorders happening.

It is not easy for most patients to realize their bipolar conditions but the earlier the treatment, the better. Parents are urged to notice if any of these traits match their is kids behavior and report to the nearest medical center for help. There is no cure for these mental disorders instead they are usually treated via a combination of medications and therapy to reduce the impacts of the symptoms. Antidepressants and mood stabilizers are prescribed for the patients to help control the way the brain gets the depressive feeling (Grunze et.al., 2018). You may feel better after weeks of taking the drugs, but you are advised not to stop till when your doctor says so. The drugs are taken for at least six months to a year; it depends on what your doctor says. Patients must go through several types of psychotherapies which may include cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, family-focused therapy, and problem-solving. These therapies are proven to provide relief to patients who other forms of treatment have failed to work for them.

In the U.S about 4.4% of every adult has passed through these disorders at some point in his lifetime. DSM-5 criteria were used to determine impairment and estimates prove, the youths from the age of 18-30 are the most affected age group with 2.9% with 82.9% of these patients having severe impairments (Judd, L. L., Akiskal, H. S. 2003).

Conclusion

These disorders may affect our daily to daily productivity. Consider a person who is Bipolar and starts to experience the high moments; it will motivate him at work and make him more productive at that day. If it happens, he is in his depressive moods; this means he will not be able to work or corporate with other workmates and may cause a big workload if the conditions may last longer. Since his states may change at any time, it is a requirement for every workmate to be aware of such symptoms anyone notices a change in the affected behaviors he will understand the condition react accordingly in a manner that there will be still a peaceful working environment.

References

Grunze, H., Vieta, E., Goodwin, G. M., Bowden, C., Licht, R. W., Azorin, J. M., ... & Members of the WFSBP Task Force on Bipolar Affective Disorders Working on this topic. (2018). The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Guidelines for the Biological Treatment of Bipolar Disorders: Acute and long-term treatment of mixed states in bipolar disorder. The World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 19(1), 2-58.

Judd, L. L., & Akiskal, H. S. (2003). The prevalence and disability of bipolar spectrum disorders in the US population: re-analysis of the ECA database taking into account subthreshold cases. Journal of affective disorders, 73(1), 123-131.

Vancampfort, D., Stubbs, B., Mitchell, A. J., De Hert, M., Wampers, M., Ward, P. B., ... & Correll, C. U. (2015). Risk of metabolic syndrome and its components in people with schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder: a systematic review and metaanalysis. World Psychiatry, 14(3), 339-347.