This document discusses bipolar disorder, including its symptoms, diagnosis, types, risks, treatment, and effects on individuals. Bipolar disorder is characterized by periods of elevated mood and depression. It often begins appearing in early adulthood. Diagnosis involves evaluating family history and presence of symptoms over time. Treatment typically involves lithium or valproic acid, which can cause side effects like nausea, tremors, and weight gain. Individuals discuss experiencing manic episodes involving euphoria and risky behaviors, depressive episodes with suicidal thoughts, and difficulty with social relationships before receiving treatment and diagnosis.

1. S T E P H E N P O K O WI T Z
BIPOLAR DISORDER

2. WHAT IS BIPOLAR DISORDER
• A mental disorder characterized by periods of
elevated mood and periods of depression. IT effects

3. SYMPTOMS
• Mania: During this a person feels or acts abnormally
happy, energetic, or irritable. Make poor decisions.
• Depression: During this there may be crying, poor
eye contact with others, and a very negative
outlook on life.

4. AGE GROUP
• Bipolar Disorder begins to appear around the early
twenties in most people but it can appear as early
as elementary school.
• Bipolar disorder appears before age 20 in about
one in five manic individuals.

5. DIAGNOSIS
• Using the DSM-IV a mental health professional will
use signs and symptoms including but not limited to
family history and presence of symptoms over time.

6. TYPES
• Bipolar 1 Disorder: The typically thought of bipolar
disorder this includes the severe mood swings and
symptoms mentioned above.
• Bipolar 2 Disorder: A milder version of Bipolar 1
Disorder characterized by a milder version of manic
episodes.

7. RISKS
• Besides poor decision making and the effects of
depression there is a high risk of suicide (6%), and
self harm occurs in 30-40% of those affected.
• Substance abuse disorder is very often associated
with it.

8. COEXISTING ILLNESSES
• Anxiety disorder often accompanies Bipolar
disorder due to its stressful nature and
consequences
• Substance Abuse Disorder often accompanies
Bipolar Disorder because the depressive and manic
states encourages substance abuse.

9. GENETIC FACTORS
• Though they cannot find a specific factor that
causes bipolar disorder it is widely known that
bipolar disorder can run in families.
• This has been confirmed by twin studies where there
is a 70% chance that the other twin also has the
disorder.

10. EFFECTS ON BRAIN
• From postmortem samples of those with bipolar
disorder we can see there was a different
concentration of chemicals than is normally seen. It
is not known exactly what these chemicals do.

11. TREATMENT
• Lithium and Valproic acid have been the only
effective solutions but it is not known why they work,
only that they seem to reverse the abnormal
concentrations of chemicals that were mentioned
in the previous slide.

12. SIDE AFFECTS OF TREATMENT
• Many side effects of treatment of Bipolar Disorder
go away after a few weeks of treatment.
• These side effects include, nausea, tremors, hair loss,
sexual problems, weight gain, liver failure,
abdominal pain, etc.

13. T H E E F F E C T S O F H A V I N G B I P O L A R D I S O R D E R
SILAS DOGOOD

14. MANIC STAGE
• “During my manic stages I would go on large
spending sprees filled with happiness and a feeling
of euphoria”
• “Duing my stages I sometimes use drugs, alchohol.
My favorite is cocaine. This stage lasts about 5 days”
• “I always forget about my depression during this
stage”

15. DEPRESSIVE STAGE
• “I hate these stages, they make me feel as if I were
worthless. I have trouble getting out of bed and I
sometimes contemplate suicide”

16. NORMAL STAGE
• “I guess this is what you would call the “normal
stage” or when I’m feeling normal like before the
disorder really set in.”
• “The worst part about this stage is waiting for the
next stage to set in. The anxiety of the next attack
coming. It wears on me.”

17. TREATMENT
• “After my doctor formally diagnosed me he gave
me something called lithium that he said would
help me”

18. SIDE EFFECTS
• “The side effects of that drug made me nauseas for
the first few weeks and I gained a lot of weight and
had some abdominal pain.”
• “The treatment is starting to work more and the side
effects are starting to wear off.”

19. POST TREATMENT
• “Sometimes I’m still depressed but it is very mild, its
hard to tell between the different mood swings and
I finally feel normal after years of treatment”
• “My shopping sprees have ended and I feel
normal”

20. SOCIAL LIFE
• “Before I started my medication I had lost most of
the friends I had before the disorder had started”
• “The manic stages annoyed my friends and I really
didn’t feel like hanging out with my old friends when
I got depressed”
• “After explaining to my friends what happened wit
my disorder and that I was getting treated they are
accepting me now and we are getting along.”