An estimated 2.3 million Americans live with an emotional illness called bipolar disorder, according to Mental Health America. Scientists searching for the cause of bipolar disorder have noticed that levels of glutamine -- a basic component of your body's proteins -- seem to rise in the brain when bipolar patients enter manic states. If these findings are confirmed by more research, bipolar disorder would be associated with increased brain glutamine levels, not decreased glutamine levels. If you or someone you love has bipolar disorder, you...
Many theories have been posited regarding the etiology of bipolar disorder. One interesting idea is that bipolar disorder is caused by a misfiring of brain neurons due to a malfunction in the brain messenger molecule known as g...
Characterized by extreme mood changes, bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic-depression, is usually treated with a combination of antidepressant and antipsychotic medications. Because bipolar medications often have severe s...
Bipolar disorder, a mood swing of mania and depression, affects over 10 million people in the United States with an equal prevalence rate in both men and women, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI. Two ty...
A person with bipolar disorder will experience cycles of mania or hypomania and depression. The cause of bipolar disorder is not fully known, and it is believed that a number of different things, including environmental circums...
Bipolar disorder causes intense mood swings, as well as a shift in a person's energy and activity levels. These changes are so severe that they seriously affect a person's everyday life. This condition is treated with medicatio...
Although the prevalence in children is unknown, bipolar disorder that begins in childhood tends to be more severe than that diagnosed in adulthood. The causes of the disorder are thought to involve a combination of biology, bra...
The presentation of bipolar disorder in children is somewhat different from that of adults. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, children with bipolar disorder tend to experience more severe symptoms and cycle ...
It usually manifests by the age of 28, although children, adolescents or seniors may be affected. Approximately 1 percent of the population is believed to have bipolar affective disorder, according to The Organization for Bipol...
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which individuals experience mania and extremely high euphoric mood, which may alternate with bouts of depression. The definitive cause of the disorder is unknown; however, risk factors in...
Bipolar disorder is described as a chronic brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in mood, energy and/or activity levels. A person with bipolar disorder may be extremely happy and energetic one minute and severely sad and ti...
People with bipolar disorder will experience changes in mood, shifting back and forth from mania to depression. Children can experience these changes in mood many times throughout a single day, which may significantly impact th...
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder in which individuals demonstrate changing mood symptoms, which include the presence of elevated mood, or mania, and depression. The National Institute of Mental Health indicates that children...
Bipolar disorder---known also as manic depression---is a disorder of the brain that causes unusual shifts in mood and activity and energy levels, which all affect a person's ability to carry out everyday activities, as the Nati...
Bipolar disorder is characterized by fluctuating moods that consist of extreme excitement and intense despair. Bipolar disorder may lie dormant for years only to be spontaneously activated. The exact cause of bipolar disorder i...
If this system does not work, an individual becomes depressed, according to researchers reporting in the May 2010 issue of Natural Neuroscience. Another team from Harvard University found abnormal mitochondrial energy metaboli...
A mood disorder that causes patients to have both mania and depression, bipolar disorder also impacts behavior. The type of behaviors that bipolar disorder patients display depend on their mood. For example, during mania, patie...
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, in the United States, bipolar disorders affect approximately 5.7 million adults per year. Bipolar II is a mood disorder with cycles of depressed and hypomanic states. In bi...
The brain disorder tends to show symptoms of severe ups and downs in teen or young adult years, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The causes of bipolar mania aren't entirely known, but experts list so...
In addition to the mood changes there are behavior changes characteristic of this disorder. In the most severe forms, this disorder can be disabling yet there is no specific cause alone for those who are afflicted with this ill...
Abnormal brain activity can be the result of unusual electrical activity. Nerve cells in the brain (also known as neurons) are electrically active. When a neuron gets stimulated, special channels get opened in the neuron that a...
They are generally formed without knowledge or based on fear of the unknown. In the case of those with bipolar disorder, these stereotypes, or stigmas, often cause those with this condition to feel so ashamed that they fail to ...
As genetic influences are thought to play a part in bipolar disorder (BPD), when a person is assessed for this condition she is asked whether anyone in her family has, or had, this or any other psychiatric problems.
Researchers have not yet discovered a single cause of bipolar disorder, which is also known as manic depression. They do, however, agree that there are a few potential causes that may occur either separately or together. Geneti...
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by dramatic mood swings. Patients with the disease cycle between the extreme emotional high of mania and the debilitating lows of depressions. Some patients may experie...
Bipolar disease is a psychiatric disorder in which patients vary between periods of unusually high mood (also known as manic episodes) and unusually low mood (depressive episodes). Although the exact cause of bipolar disease is...
Episodes may be accompanied by anxiety, hallucinations and thoughts of suicide. More than half of all bipolar disorders begin before patients turn 25. No definite causes have been determined for manic depression. Scientists stu...
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder that causes symptoms of both mania and depression in patients. As classified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-IV, symptoms of bipolar disorder must last fo...
Bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic-depression, is a mental illness known to be hereditary. The condition causes wide, sometimes disabling mood swings between euphoria and depression. According to the Mayo Clinic, signs of...
Bipolar disorder, which was once called manic depression or manic depressive illness, is a medical disorder characterized by severe mood swings. During the manic phase, a person may be very active and will probably not sleep mu...
At its roots, bipolar disorder is a malfunctioning of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. The malfunction may happen spontaneously, seemingly on its own, if there's a genetic tendency to bipolar disorder in your family. It...
Stress serves as a trigger for both manic and depressive episodes. Stressful events can include work situations, financial difficulties and the death of a loved one. Although these are not the only sources of stress, it is impo...
Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric illness that causes people to suffer from severe mood swings. If you have bipolar disorder, you may experience episodes of extreme sadness and depression, but then you may jump to a state of c...
