What is bipolar disorder?
Bipolar disorder is a type of mental illness. It's in the category of mood disorders. Patients with bipolar disorder suffer from both highs and lows in their mood. When you're high it's called a manic episode; people can feel euphoric and elated. It can lead to impairment in judgment and disruption in sleep and eating. Similarly, when people are depressed their mood drops. They feel quite down and sleeping, eating, social activities can also be disrupted.
What causes bipolar disorder?
We don't know any specific causes. We know there is a genetic component; there is an element of heredity and we believe that neurotransmitters in the brain are contributory, but we don't know the fine details of what causes it.
What are the types of bipolar disorder?
There is bipolar disorder type 1 and bipolar disorder type 2. For bipolar disorder type 1, patients suffer from a cluster of symptoms that together would be called a manic episode. That includes severe euphoria and elation and a severe impairment in functioning. People might become psychotic, become very grandiose and have hallucinations. They may or may not have a depressive episode.
For bipolar disorder type 2, patients have what's called a hypomanic episode; it's an elevated mood, but not to the same severity of a bipolar disorder type 1 manic episode. Also, they will have had a depressive episode sometime in their life as well.
