Going to Extremes: Manic-Depressive Illness

There is a tendency to romanticize manic-depressive illness. Many artists, musicians and writers have suffered from its mood swings. But in truth, many lives are ruined by this disease and, without effective treatment, the illness leads to suicide in nearly 20 percent of cases. Manic-depressive illness, also known as Bipolar disorder, a serious brain disease that causes extreme shifts in mood, energy, and functioning, affects approximately 2.3 million adult Americans - about one percent of the population. Men and women are equally likely to develop this disabling illness. Different from normal mood states of happiness and sadness, symptoms of manic-depressive illness can be severe and life threatening.

Manic-depressive illness typically emerges in adolescence or early adulthood and continues to flare up across the life course, disrupting or destroying work, school, family, and social life. Manic-depressive illness is characterized by symptoms that fall into several major categories:

Depression: Symptoms include a persistent sad mood; loss of interest or pleasure in activities that were once enjoyed; significant change in appetite or body weight; difficulty sleeping or oversleeping; physical slowing or agitation; loss of energy; feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt; difficulty thinking or concentrating; and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.

Mania: Abnormally and persistently elevated (high) mood or irritability accompanied by at least three of the following symptoms: overly-inflated self-esteem; decreased need for sleep; increased talkativeness; racing thoughts; distractibility; increased goal-directed activity such as shopping; physical agitation; and excessive involvement in risky behaviors or activities.

Psychosis: Severe depression or mania may be accompanied by periods of psychosis. Psychotic symptoms include: hallucinations (hearing, seeing, or otherwise sensing the presence of stimuli that are not there) and delusions (false personal beliefs that are not subject to reason or contradictory evidence and are not explained by a person's cultural concepts). Psychotic symptoms associated with manic-depressive illness typically reflect the extreme mood state at the time.

"Mixed" state: Symptoms of mania and Depression are present at the same time. The symptom picture frequently includes agitation, trouble sleeping, significant change in appetite, psychosis, and suicidal thinking. Depressed mood accompanies manic activation.

Symptoms of mania, depression, or mixed state appear in episodes, or distinct periods of time, which typically recur and become more frequent across the life span. These episodes, especially early in the course of illness, are separated by periods of wellness during which a person suffers few to no symptoms. When four or more episodes of illness occur within a 12-month period, the person is said to have manic-depressive illness with rapid cycling. Manic-depressive illness is often complicated by co-occurring alcohol or substance abuse.