Abstract
Bipolar I and II disorder symbolize the most severe and regular subtypes of the bipolar condition. Bipolar disorder is a significant health issue in the world. It is a chronic condition which may need life-long medications. The diagnosis can frequently take place years after the starting of the condition. The management of bipolar I and bipolar II disorder needs constant lifetime medication and attention to psychosocial problems for patients suffering from bipolar and their families. The disease is complex to manage, even for psychologists, since it has many episodes of depression and mania as well as hypomania. The paper will examine both bipolar I and II disorder, their similarities, difference and how the disorders affect the life of a child.
Introduction
Bipolar disorder is also referred to as manic-depressive condition. It is a brain condition that leads to abnormal changes in energy, mood, activity levels, as well as the capability to carry daily tasks. It is a severe mental condition in which the emotions of an individual are either intensely or unpredictably magnified. People suffering from bipolar disorder have unusual patterns of displaying emotions, for instance, one can change from extremes of energy, happiness as well as clarity to fatigue, sadness, and confusion. It is a major public health issue and has raised major concerns. An individual can have the disorder throughout his or her life. Bipolar I and II are the most frequently diagnosed, and they are the most severe subtypes of bipolar disorder. Evidence suggests that bipolar II is as widespread as bipolar I disorder.
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Bipolar disorder is connected with significant death risk with roughly twenty-five percent of people suffering from bipolar I and Bipolar II disorders trying to take their own life (Donald M. Hilty, 2006). The emotional changes can be so annihilating that people may choose suicide. Eleven percent of bipolar patients have completed suicide. Additionally, lack of enough service, as well as treatment structure, results in greater number of bipolar patients going to jail. The disorder is also undertreated where some people continue to suffer from the disease for about thirteen years. All individuals with bipolar I and bipolar II disorder experience manic episodes. These episodes are substantially elevated or irritable moods that can last for even a week and interfere with the functioning of the person.
On average, bipolar I begin at roughly eighteen years while bipolar II starts at 22 years. A person suffering from bipolar I disorder has had noticeably one manic episode in her or his life. Individuals with bipolar I also suffer from depression where they cycle between mania as well as depression. The word manic depression originates from this unusual pattern of mania and depression. However, this person can also lead healthy lives. Anyone in the world can get bipolar I disorder. Approximately three percent of the population in the United States have bipolar I disorder. This is like six million individuals. Most people are in their adolescence or early 20s when they start showing symptoms of bipolar. Almost all persons with bipolar I disorder get the disorder before the age of 50. The disease is mostly hereditary where individuals with an immediate bipolar family member are at a higher risk.
Bipolar II disorder is the same as Bipolar I disorder where moods change from high to low every time (Judd, 2008). Nonetheless, in Bipolar II, the period where a person has high moods never reach complete episodes of mania. The elevated moods that are less intense in bipolar II are referred to as hypomania or hypomanic episodes. When an individual suffers from bipolar II disorder, she or he has had noticeably one episode of hypomania in her or his life. Also, people with bipolar II generally can live normal lives in between periods of hypomania and depression.
Bipolar I and II disorder are similar regarding their symptoms. Both types of bipolar have unusual behavior during manic episodes. The abnormal behavior may involve, having so many ideas at one where a person suddenly jumps from idea to the next, increased levels of energy where a bipolar person s hyperactive, having a magnified self-confidence and self-esteem as well as powerful speech that is uninterruptable.
Bipolar I and bipolar II disorder also differ from each other. Bipolar I diagnosis needs the presence of noticeable one manic episode, with or without a history of significant depressive episodes as compared to bipolar II disorder which needs at least one major depressive episode together with one hypomanic episode. Episodes of depression exceed hypomanic/manic episodes in frequency as well as duration in both subtypes of bipolar. Hence patients are usually seen to have depressive symptoms by physicians.
No sufficient evidence explains that the depressive symptoms and severity of both subtypes of bipolar differ (Lauren B. Alloy, 2012). Correspondently, bipolar I and bipolar II can be differentiated by carefully examining the psychiatric history of a person that involves explaining in detail the history or presence of manic and hypomanic episodes respectively. Even though mania and hypomania are the key features that define bipolar I and II disorder, depressive episodes appear more frequently, and they last for a long time. Furthermore, a person suffering from bipolar II disorder has more episodes of depression, and the illness is also chronic as compared to one that has bipolar I disorder.
Bipolar II disorder patients are at a greater risk of being given the wrong diagnosis where a physician can mistake them for having a major depressive disorder (MDD), which has the same symptoms of depression like bipolar disorder. The misdiagnosis is due to the difficulties in accurately diagnosing hypomania. Treating bipolar as MDD can result in the starting of inadequate treatment. Medications used to treat bipolar disorder cannot be very effective in treating bipolar II disorder because of the frequency, duration and the sereneness of depressive episodes in bipolar II. Therefore, there is the existence of restricted recommendations concerning guidelines for the bipolar II disorder treatment.
Bipolar I and II disorders significantly affect the life of a child. Even though bipolar usually develops in young adults and adolescents, it also is found in children as young as six years. Many children particularly teenagers have mood swings which are normal (Catherine Datto, 2016). However, when these mood swings do not change and interfere with the life of a child, and he or she is not able to function efficiently then bipolar disorder could be the cause. Children suffering from bipolar I disorder as well as bipolar II disorder experience periods of high moods which is known as mania as well as periods of low moods which is depression. The abrupt changes in attitudes can cause irritability in the life of a child. Parents who have children with this condition say that they are often unpredictable. Sometimes the children can be very aggressive, other times silly or withdrawn. Such children have a likelihood of developing anxiety disorders s well attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.
A child suffering from bipolar I disorder and Bipolar II disorder may have problems in transitioning. He or she may also have syndromes that make him or her inattentive, easy to be distracted, perfectionistic or very anxious. The child may also be sleepy all the time because of the medications hence it is not easy for the child to socialize with other people and family because a lot of time is spent on sleeping. Also, bipolar medications can make a child have cognitive difficulties (Andrew J. Freeman, 2009). Children having bipolar have disabilities in learning as well as executive function deficiency which make it extremely hard for them to put together and break things down as well as finishing complicated tasks. They find it hard to learn difficult things in school as a result of the cognitive disabilities. Organizing things well is also a challenge for them. These difficulties complicate a child’s acquisition of knowledge and make it hard for the child to adjust to the demands of academics. Bipolar children need proper accommodations in school due to their cognitive and learning difficulties.
Children with bipolar I and II disorder are more irritable than adults when they experience manic episodes. They tend to experience psychotic symptoms where they can hear and see things that are not real. They might also complain of pains and aches when they have depressive episodes. Also, a child with bipolar may have crumbling interpersonal relationships. It is not easy for the child to make and maintain interpersonal relationships as the child maybe sometimes unstable and people may mistake him or her for being crazy. Therefore, the child will have difficulties in making friends. Bipolar, I and II disorder, may make children to develop risky behaviors like substance abuse and even make them contemplate suicide (Kathleen Ries Merikangas, 2009).
Conclusion
In a nutshell, bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder is a significant public health issue connect with major morbidity as well as a high risk of mortality. Many factors make the treatment of bipolar complex including the shifts in mood episodes as well as the impact of these events on the well-being of the patient. Both subtypes of bipolar have similar symptoms, but bipolar II disorder is more chronic and severe regarding frequency and duration of depressive episodes. The disease affects the life of a child where it causes cognitive and learning difficulties as well as executive function deficiency.
References
Andrew J. Freeman. (2009). Quality of life in pediatric bipolar disorder. Pediatrics 123.3 , 446-452.
Catherine Datto, W. J. (2016). Bipolar II compared with bipolar I disorder: baseline characteristics and treatment response to quetiapine in a pooled analysis of five placebo-controlled clinical trials of acute bipolar depression. Annals of General Psychiatry , 111-113.
Donald M. Hilty, M. H. (2006). A review of Bipolar Disorder in Adults. Psychiatry (Edgmont) , 43-55.
Judd, L. L. (2008). Psychosocial disability in the course of bipolar I and II disorders: a prospective, comparative, longitudinal study. Archives of general psychiatry 62.12 , 1322-1330.
Kathleen Ries Merikangas, E. F. (2009). Epidemiology of mental disorders in children and adolescents. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience 11.1 , 7.
Lauren B. Alloy. (2012). Progression along the bipolar spectrum: a longitudinal study of predictors of conversion from bipolar spectrum conditions to bipolar I and II disorders. Journal of abnormal psychology 121.1 , 16.
