The Challenges of Bipolar Disorder
by Shain Waugh
What is it?
Bipolar is a mental illness classified as a manic-depressive disorder. This brain disorder causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. The symptoms of bipolar disorder have been known to be extremely severe in coping challenges. The severe condition tend to affect personal relationships, jobs, academic performance, and even suicide.
About 5.7 million American adults ages 18 and older are affected by this disorder any given year. The disorder usually develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. However, some people have their first symptoms during childhood, and some develop them late in life. It is a long-term illness that must be carefully managed throughout a person’s life.
Symptoms
Manic
• Increased energy, activity, and restlessness
• Excessively “high,” overly good, euphoric mood
• Extreme irritability
• Racing thoughts and talking very fast, jumping from one idea to another
• Distractibility, can’t concentrate well
Depression
• acting sad, anxious, or empty mood
• Feelings of hopelessness or pessimism
• Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness
Causes
Episodes of mania and depression typically recur across the life span. Between episodes, most people with bipolar disorder are free of symptoms, but as many as one-third of people have some residual symptoms. A small percentage of people experience chronic unremitting symptoms despite treatment.
The classic form of the illness, which involves recurrent episodes of mania and depression, is called bipolar I disorder. Some people, however, never develop severe mania but instead experience milder episodes of hypomania that alternate with depression; this form of the illness is called bipolar II disorder. When four or more episodes of illness occur within a 12-month period, a person is said to have rapid-cycling bipolar disorder. Some people experience multiple episodes within a single week, or even within a single day. Rapid cycling tends to develop later in the course of illness and is more common among women than among men.
Results & treatments
Results from a new analysis of two major clinical trials have shown that patients with bipolar disorder who received long-term treatment with SEROQUEL plus a mood stabiliser were significantly less likely to have a mood event than patients on a mood stabiliser alone. The data, which highlight the potential of SEROQUEL for maintenance therapy of patients with bipolar I disorder, were presented on Sunday, 27 January 2008 at the 3rd Biennial Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) in Delhi, India.
Treatment
According to experts, “Bipolar disorder is a chronic, lifelong illness and patients suffer frequent relapses when they can become depressed or manic. Maintenance therapy is an important part of managing these patients and can offer long-term relief from these recurrences,” said Professor Eduard Vieta, Clinical Institute of Neuroscience, University of Barcelona, Spain. “Our analysis of data from more than a thousand patients suggest the potential of treatment regimens which include SEROQUEL along with a mood stabiliser to reduce the likelihood of mood events.”
Long-term treatment with SEROQUEL was generally well tolerated - the most commonly reported adverse events in patients treated with SEROQUEL plus a mood stabiliser during the randomised treatment phase were headache (7.4%), nasopharyngitis (7.1%) and upper respiratory tract infection (6.7%). The most common adverse events during the open-label stabilisation phase were sedation (23.8%), somnolence (18.7%), dry mouth (16.5%) and weight increase (13.9%). The analysis also showed a greater incidence of fasting blood glucose increases to hyperglycaemic levels.
References
1. Brecher M, et al. Quetiapine in the maintenance treatment of bipolar I disorder: combined data from two long-term phase III studies. Presented at the Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, Delhi, India, 27-30 January, 2008.
2. Vieta E, et al. Efficacy and safety of quetiapine in combination with lithium/divalproex as maintenance treatment for bipolar I disorder. Presented at the Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, Delhi, India, 27-30 January, 2008.
3. Suppes T, et al. Maintenance treatment in bipolar I disorder with quetiapine concomitant with lithium or divalproex: a placebo-controlled, randomized multicenter trial. Presented at the Conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, Delhi, India, 27-30 January, 2008.
4. www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/default.htm