Bipolar is a mental disorder that causes an extreme change in a person’s mood and energy level. While everyone experiences a shift in mood, people with bipolar disorder (depending on its type) experience severe mood swings and behavior that can significantly impact their lives.
Patients with bipolar disorder likely experience extreme elevated or irritable moods called manic episodes. Episodes of depression are often another cause of bipolar disorder. Both depressive and manic episodes can be as short as a few hours to as long as several days. These cycles can also be much longer, going for several weeks or even months. The treatment of bipolar disorder depends on its type and symptoms. Ketamine for bipolar can help treat depressive episodes linked with bipolar disorder and be used as an advanced treatment option.
You may also like to know more about, “How does Ketamine work for depression?”
According to the American Psychiatric Association, bipolar disorder has four types: bipolar I, bipolar II, cyclothymic, and bipolar disorder due to medical or substance abuse.
Different Types of Bipolar Disorder
These four types of bipolar disorder are differentiated by the pattern of manic and depressive episodes. And so, its treatment differs depending on the type of bipolar disorder one may have.
Bipolar I disorder
Bipolar I disorder is characterized by manic episodes, regardless of depression symptoms. It is diagnosed when manic episodes continue for at least a week and are coupled with psychotic features. Your mania can likely be severe enough that it requires you to be hospitalized to prevent harming yourself or others. Though it is not necessary to have depression to be diagnosed with bipolar I, it may also present with depressive episodes that last over two weeks.
Bipolar II disorder
Bipolar II is diagnosed when a patient experiences major depression and hypomania (a less severe form of mania). A patient with bipolar II disorder will experience a major depressive episode either before a manic break or after that. Following are the common symptoms of the major depressive episode:
- Insomnia or hypersomnia
- Severe fatigue
- Crying
- Loss of interest
- Suicidal thoughts
Cyclothymic disorder
Cyclothymia is a less severe form of bipolar disorder. Just like bipolar disorder, this type contains cyclic mood swings. You may experience both depressive and manic episodes for two years or longer. However, the attacks are often not severe enough to qualify as either major depression or mania.
This mental health condition generally develops in adolescence. Patients with this disorder often lack to function normally, though others may consider them moody or difficult. In other words, people may experience unstable moods and periods of normalcy mixed with depression and mania. People often neglect to get treated for this condition, as the mood swings don’t seem severe. However, cyclothymia can likely result in bipolar disorder if left untreated.
Bipolar disorder due to medical or substance abuse
Some bipolar disorders neither have a specific pattern nor match the other three types. Yet, they still have to meet abnormal mood shifts’ criteria. This type of bipolar may be caused by alcohol, drugs, or underlying medical conditions.
For example, a person may have depressive episodes. Still, the symptoms of mood shifts are too mild to be diagnosed as mania or hypomania. Another example is if a person experiences mild hypomania or depressive episodes that last less than two years to be categorized as cyclothymia.
Blog Buzzers 