Bipolar disorder disability or bipolar depression affects the brain’s neurotransmitters (nerve cells that transmit signals), causing emotions and emotional responses to short circuits.
This mental illness can lie dormant for a long time, even decades, before striking the victim with sudden mania or a bout of extreme depression.
People who have bipolar disorder disability can be severely depressed and unable to find a way out of their sadness. Often such depression can lead to the patients attempting to hurt themselves, and 15% will even commit suicide.
The Prevalence Rate of Bipolar Disorder Disability:
Bipolar disorder often occurs with other co-occurring mental disorders. According to DSM-5, the prevalence of suicidal attempts for bipolar I and Bipolar II is 34.35%. The lifetime prevalence rate between males and females is 1.1:1.
If the illness is left untreated the depression will remain and become a danger to the victim and others. Symptoms of bipolar disorder disability include BELLOW:
- Sleep disruption – insomnia or hypersomnia (sleeping too much).
- Significant changes in body weight – increase or decrease.
- Inability to feel pleasure or happiness.
- Periodic loss of short-term memory.
- Inability to focus and concentrate.
- Feeling worthless and sad.
- Withdrawing from others.
- Loss of sex drive.
- Feeling agitated.
- Indecisiveness.
- Feeling guilty.
- Constipation
- Headaches
- Fatigue
In chronic or severe states,e symptoms of bipolar disorder are:
- Delusional thoughts.
- Hallucinations.
- Catatonia
Bipolar Disorder Disability Treatment
Effective treatment is necessary for bipolar disorder, but most sufferers believe they can control it. In addition, the episodic nature of depression causes many patients to feel that they can cope until the next time their moods swing.
As the maniac episode goes further, the condition of the patient deteriorates. The patient will be unable to concentrate, have problems controlling reactions, and may become violent, with a tendency towards suicide or physically abusing others.
Treatments for bipolar disorder disability include medications and psychosocial options used in tandem to control the illness and the behavior. The patient benefits from the suppressive nature of the drugs and the ‘talk therapy‘ and ‘group therapy‘ arranged by the psychiatrist handling the case.
The doctor leads any treatment changes and always discusses them with the patient before implementation.
Treatment Includes :
- Medication
- Psychotherapy
- Long-term preventive (prophylactic) treatment
Dealing with Bipolar Disorder Disability Relapse
Bipolar disorder is a complex psychiatric disorder that affects the neurotransmitters in the brain, causing emotions to short-circuit. As a result, those affected by bipolar disorder become paralyzed in their state, unable to pull themselves out.
Bipolar disorder disability is a highly recurrent illness, even when patients receive optimal, evidence-based treatment. Patients with bipolar disorder are usually on a cocktail of mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. Therefore, before understanding how to deal with a bipolar disorder relapse, clarifying what may cause deterioration is best.
The following behaviors can lead to depressive or manic relapse:
- Stopping the medication or reducing the dosage.
- Under or over-medication.
- Illicit drugs such as cocaine, alcohol, amphetamines, or opiates.
- Inconsistent sleep schedule.
It is believed that lower dosages of caffeine can work as an antidepressant but can also be mania-inducing. Suppose the patient cannot manage the stress; they can easily relapse when not medicated. The medication works to help the patient deal with stress, but if there is still a great deal of stress and no coping measures in place, relapse is likely.
Keeping Track
Treatment success is only seen over the long term. Relapse is pretty standard over a long time, so psychiatrists work on psychotherapy measures in combination with medication.
The patient report mood must change immediately to adjust the medicine before a relapse occurs. Medication adjustments are a normal part of long-term maintenance treatment and should not be considered a failure.
Long-term Use of Medicines
It can be challenging to follow long-term treatments for any illness; such is the case with bipolar disorder treatments.
While you may want to stop your treatment due to not relapsing in a long time or having adverse side effects, you should know that stopping medication nearly guarantees a relapse within months, sometimes weeks.
You will even face an increased chance of suicide if you stop taking some medicines (like lithium) without tapering off under a doctor’s care.
Discontinuing Medication
Discontinuing the medication should always be done under the watchful eye of your psychiatrist. If you choose to stop taking drugs, the risks are incredible, and you will soon relapse.
Sometimes the doctor will begin tapering medication after only one year if there has been only one episode of mania. Unfortunately, if you have a family history of bipolar disorder disability or severe attacks, you should consider very long-term maintenance treatment.
Indefinite medication treatment is recommended for any patient with two or more episodes of either type.
You should only discontinue a preventive/maintenance medication due to a medical condition or severe side effects. For example, if you are a woman trying to conceive, you may want to consider reducing dosage or stopping the medication, but you should be aware that it can lead to a relapse.
Psychotherapy for Bipolar Disorder Disability
Psychotherapy is an excellent addition to medication treatment and can help prevent relapse. There are five primary psychotherapy treatments for bipolar disorder, along with medications. They are:
- Prodrome Detection.
- Psycho-education
- Cognitive therapy
- Interpersonal/Social Rhythm.
- Family-focused therapy
By engaging in any of these therapies, the patient and their family clearly understand the disorder and its impact on each individual affected. They also get a clearer picture of things that may trigger a relapse. Hence, they can control these triggers and prevent these relapses.
Most relapse cases occur because of inconsistency in the medication or therapy plan. Therefore, people close to the patients must take it upon themselves to ensure that the medication plan is followed and that all therapy sessions are attended.
After all, bipolar disorder disability is not dealt with alone on medication or therapy. Instead, it is a mixture of both things, which, when done meticulously over time, reduces the severity of the disorder and decreases the chances of relapse.
Without treatment or intervention during this extreme stage, the patient will die. Acute phase bipolar disorder disability treatment deals with ending the current manic, hypomanic, or depressive state.
The components of acute-phase bipolar disorder disability treatment include medication, education, and psychotherapy. Three essential drugs are used to treat bipolar disorder symptoms: mood stabilizers, antidepressants, and antipsychotics.
Mood Stabilizers for Bipolar Depression
Mood stabilizers must have two main properties:
- First, relieve acute mania or depression; prevent episodes from recurring.
- Do not exacerbate symptoms or lead to an increase in cycling.
Antipsychotics for Bipolar Disorder Disability Treatment
Various drugs are used to treat different aspects of bipolar disorder. For example, if the patient is having delusions or hallucinations from a severely manic episode, antipsychotic medications can be helpful.
Antipsychotics can be used for sedation sedatives early in treatment, insomnia, anxiety, and agitation. In addition, newer antipsychotic medications are believed to work well as mood stabilizers.
Patients who have not had psychotic symptoms sometimes benefit from antipsychotic medications because they improve patient response to mood stabilizers. Some patients do not handle or respond to the typical mood stabilizers well, so antipsychotics may be used alone to stabilize their mood.
There are two types of antipsychotics: typical/conventional antipsychotics (older drugs) and atypical antipsychotics (newer drugs). Conventional antipsychotics come with the risk of tardive dyskinesia (TD) (a permanent movement disorder), muscle stiffness, restlessness, and tremors.
Atypical antipsychotics have a lower risk of TD (1% of patients) and other side effects. Since they are viewed as safer, atypical antipsychotics are the first line of defense against psychosis.
Side Effects of Drug Treatment
Most people with side effects from atypical antipsychotics suffer from drowsiness and weight gain. Clozapine is usually the primary medicine of this group because one of its side effects is a rare but serious blood disorder that requires regular blood tests.
Antidepressants for Bipolar Disorder DisabilityTreatment
Antidepressants are combined with mood stabilizers to treat depression symptoms. Antidepressants must be used with a mood stabilizer to keep the patient from switching to a manic episode.
There are various antidepressants available, and they have a wide range of side effects. Depression is often seen as something separate from mania, so most of the research on antidepressant medications has been done on unipolar depression without considering the impact it would have on its effect. So little research on bipolar disorder and antidepressant medicines, most research suggests that antidepressants are very effective in treating bipolar disorder when used with mood stabilizers.
If you want to get more reliable information about bipolar disorder disability, you can check the latest “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition: DSM-5“. From this book, you will learn the various diagnostic process and classifications of mental disorders, which will help you get effective treatment.
Bipolar disorder disability can not be treated in short form. Instead, long time medical and psychotherapeutic treatment can bring effective results. Please provide us with your feedback about this writing from below comment box.