Essay Example with a Discussion on Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a mental health disease that leads to an unusual change in moods, activity levels, and ability to conduct daily tasks. Bipolar disorder mainly appears in the late teen stage of a person or in the early adult's life whereby mostly almost half of the bipolar cases begin at the age of 25 (Geddes, 2013). However, some individuals may develop their first signs of the disorder at childhood while in others the signs may appear at the late stages of life. Bipolar disorder symptoms are severe and are usually different from the normal daily ups and downs that everyone goes through in life. The symptoms of the disorder may lead to several effects such as reduced school performance, low-quality jobs, damaged relationships, and suicides. The symptoms of the disorder include. First, change in moods where by one goes for a long period feeling overly happy and in other instances one experiences very irritable moods, secondly, changes in behavior, this involves talking very fast, being restless sleeping less and getting easily distracted.

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There are four types of bipolar disorders that include, first, bipolar I disorder which is defined as manic episodes that last for around seven days. The symptoms of this disorder happen to be extremely server that an individual needs urgent hospital care. An individual also tends to have depressive episodes that last for weeks. Secondly, bipolar II disorder which is mainly defined by the patterns of depressive episodes that move back and forth between hypomanic episodes which are not mixed episodes. Thirdly, a cyclothymic disorder, which is a mild form of bipolar disorder, people with this disorder tend to have episodes of hypomania that shift back and forth with little depression for about two years (Ventimiglia, 2009).

Discus the development trajectory of bipolar disorder in symptoms and nerves development.

Bipolar disorder is a developing disease disorder such that its initial stages may be misdiagnosed as either depressive disorders or anxiety disorder. The first symptoms of bipolar disorders may paper at a young age which further develops from instances of sadness to increased cycles of both the high and low moods throughout adolescence. The stages of disease development have been previously known as the association with comorbid anxiety disorder. The occurrence of mood disorder and anxiety has been noted to relate to a worse prognosis in people with bipolar disorder. The main challenge occurs during medical personnel recognition of the nonspecific childhood symptoms in an individual with a family history of bipolar disorder. Understanding of the development trajectory can help in ensuring that the patients receive appropriate follow-up and monitoring of symptoms. The nervous abnormalities tend to appear after a complete cycle of onset of symptoms, and the abnormalities appear in the late teenage and the early adulthood, this nerves abnormalities include cortical abnormality (Alloy, 2008). These abnormalities tend to hinder the performance of work and the relationship with other family members. Therefore, the patient needs to seek medical attention to minimize its effects.

Describe the biological basis of the bipolar disorders.

Neurotransmitters involved

The population with bipolar disorders tend to have an imbalance in certain neural transmitters, which includes serotonin and norepinephrine. This neurotransmitters are crucial regulators of an individual body function that are affected by bipolar disorder for example appetite, sleep, arousal and sex drive. Medications used in the treatment of the main depressive disorder mainly increase the activities of norepinephrine and serotonin whereas the lithium used to treat bipolar disorder blocks the activity of norepinephrine at the synapsis.

Brain structure and important neural circuits.

Depression in bipolar disorder is associated with the abnormal body activities in various regions of the brain such as the amygdala, which serves the purpose of determining the emotional purpose of stimuli and experiencing emotions. The prefrontal cortex is responsible for controlling and regulating emotions whereby People with depression in bipolar disorder show enhanced levels of amygdala activity mainly when subjected to negative emotional stimuli like images of sad faces. The amygdala activation mainly increases when the stimuli are presented without the conscience of the individual. The depressed people also show less activation in the prefrontal cortex which is mainly on the left side since. The prefrontal cortex may dampen the amygdala activation thus making one to surpass the negative emotions (Tohen, 2009). Reduced activation in various regions of the prefrontal cortex may hinder its ability to override negative emotions that may lead to increased negative mood state. This suggests that the depressed people are at a high chance of reacting to emotionally negative stimuli of which it gets difficult to control them.

The interventions and treatment of the bipolar disorder.

After the medical practitioner identifies that someone is suffering from bipolar disorder, the medical practitioner explains the various treatment methods available to the patient. The medical personnel may also refer the patient to another mental health specialist, for example, the counselor and the bipolar disorder therapist. Bipolar medication plan helps to reduce the symptoms of the disorder and restores the effort to function, and fix the problems that the illness may have caused at work or home. Various types of treatment include.

Medication.

Medication is key to the bipolar treatment and control, taking a mood controlling drug helps lower the highs and lows of the disorder. Most of the disorder patients require the medication to keep the system under control. In case the medication is taken on a progressive long-term basis it may reduce the severity of the mood episodes and in some instances prevent them completely. According to a study by DR, Otto the motivation for taking the prescribed medication many be enhanced by linking pill taking to the expected outcomes (Meynard, 2008). Also through encouraging the patient's logical insight that taking medication as per the prescription is the best method for them to achieve their goals such as a stable family or the professional success.

Cognitive behavior therapy,

Cognitive behaviour therapy helps change the negative views and behaviors that may to lead challenges in dealing with the disorder. According to research the addition of cognitive behavior therapy to standard pharmacology for the patients with bipolar disorder helps the patients to show increased levels of treatment adherence and reduced hospitalization rates. It also helps show reduced rates of depression and improved rates of the overall functioning. According to DR Otto, the aims cognitive behavior therapy for the patient with the bipolar disorder includes lifestyle and stress management, medication adherence, and treatment of depression in cases of bipolar disorders (Valtonen, 2008).

Family-focused counselling.

This method of bipolar control is focused on the caregivers and family members in offering the patients guidance and support to help them deal with the challenges of the bipolar disorder on family relationships. The individual with the disorder and the family members should understand the aim of adhering to the disorder medications, for example, the mood stabilizers and have the capability to easily identify the symptoms of the oncoming episodes of increased digression.

The present challenges to completely understanding the biological basis of bipolar disorder

Mathematical and digital approaches to bipolar disorders.

Gathering of multidimensional data as a method of monitoring the behavior, symptoms, and physiology has a huge contribution in the treatment of bipolar disorder but also presents several challenges that include. First, there is the occurrence of increased practical and technical issues to solve. This ranges from maintaining compatibility of data gathering between the software versions and the operating systems to ensure compliance over a long time (Yatham, 2009). There are also acceptability, engagement, and privacy issues raised by the storage and recoding of personal data.

Secondly. The final data sets are usually complex and large such that the extraction interpretation and analysis of the data gathered are not straightforward. One thing to consider is the mathematical method used on the analysis of the data. Another option includes the use of the non-linear and the linear time series method.

VGCC genes, their relevance, and their isoforms in bipolar disorder

Identification of specific VGCCS that are relevant to bipolar disorder is a huge challenge since these genes tend to give rise to an increased variety of functional channels. VGCCs compose of several subunits thereby each is encoded in one of the subfamilies off separate genes the characteristics of the different subunits is dependent on the accessory subunits in which they are bound. More channel diversity occurs due to each gene giving rise to multiple isoforms. The human has approximately 50 exons and 40 predicted isoforms that are expressed differently in the brain as compared to the heart (Yatham, 2013). Another characteristic affected by splicing is the isoform sensitivity to the VGCC antagonists, which suggests that it is possible to target splice variant, negotiate the disease risk.

Future recommendations

There should be the availability of raw data, the wealth of information has continuously accumulated butt well analysed. The availability of complete data will help provide quick information on the bipolar questions and help avoid publication bias that makes conclusions difficult.

References

Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Walshaw, P. D., Cogswell, A., Grandin, L. D., Hughes, M. E., ... & Hogan, M. E. (2008). Behavioral approach system and behavioral inhibition system sensitivities and bipolar spectrum disorders: Prospective prediction of bipolar mood episodes. Bipolar disorders, 10(2), 310-322.

Geddes, J. R., & Miklowitz, D. J. (2013). Treatment of bipolar disorder. The Lancet, 381(9878), 1672-1682.

Meynard, J. A. (2008). Treatment of bipolar disorders. Presse medicale (Paris,

Tohen, M., Frank, E., Bowden, C. L., Colom, F., Ghaemi, S. N., Yatham, L. N., ... & Kapczinski, F. (2009). The International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) Task Force report on the nomenclature of course and outcome in bipolar disorders. Bipolar disorders, 11(5), 453-473.

Valtonen, H. M., Suominen, K., Haukka, J., Mantere, O., Leppamaki, S., Arvilommi, P., & Isometsa, E. T. (2008). Differences in incidence of suicide attempts during phases of bipolar I and II disorders. Bipolar disorders, 10(5), 588-596.

Ventimiglia, J., Kalali, A. H., & McIntyre, R. S. (2009). Treatment of bipolar disorder. Psychiatry (Edgmont), 6(10), 12.

Yatham, L. N., Kennedy, S. H., Schaffer, A., Parikh, S. V., Beaulieu, S., O'donovan, C., ... & Young, L. T. (2009). Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) collaborative update of CANMAT guidelines for the management of patients with bipolar disorder: update 2009. Bipolar disorders, 11(3), 225-255.

Yatham, L. N., Kennedy, S. H., Parikh, S. V., Schaffer, A., Beaulieu, S., Alda, M., ... & Ravindran, A. (2013). Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) collaborative update of CANMAT guideli