Under the umbrella of the term depression exist a variety of different mental health conditions associated with depressive illness including postnatal depression, premenstrual depression, seasonal affective disorder, childhood depression, psychotic depression and what was formerly known as manic depression – bipolar disorder.
Within the bipolar disorder category a range disorders are included, each of which involve mood swings and vary in terms of both severity and intensity.
Bipolar Disorder Type One
This condition is perhaps the most commonly known form of bipolar disorder and is also recognized in impacting the sufferer with the greatest amount of severity. Due to its severity, bipolar disorder type one will likely result in the individual affected requiring to be hospitalised for the manic phase of the illness.
Affecting around 1% of the population, bipolar disorder typically involves episodes of mania, when the individual's mood is greatly elevated, in addition to severe episodes of depression.
Bipolar Disorder Type Two
Bipolar disorder type two is recognised as being less severe than the symptoms associated with that of type one. As a result of this less severe impact those suffering from bipolar disorder type two are identified as being less likely to require periods of hospitalisation.
Instead of in-patient treatment, bipolar type two sufferers may be helped through outpatient therapy in addition to medication.
As bipolar disorders are widely identified as being difficult to diagnose, particularly in the case of bipolar type two where symptoms are less severe, a misdiagnosis of major depressive disorder is not uncommon.
Bipolar Disorder Type Three - Cyclothymia
Bipolar disorder type three is often referred to as cyclothymia and involved the sufferer experiencing rapid cycles of mania and depression. Such cycles are significantly more frequent than those affecting sufferers of either bipolar type one or two.
Also, the cycles in bipolar type three result in the patient experiencing significantly milder changes in mood in comparison to the other forms of bipolar disorder. Due to this reduction in severity, bipolar disorder type three may be the most difficult of all the forms of the disorder in terms of making an accurate diagnosis.
As highlighted above, there are three types of bipolar disorder - bipolar disorder type one, bipolar disorder type two and rapid-cycling biploar type three often referred to as cyclothymia. Each of these conditions in the bipolar spectrum differ in terms of severity and thus require different treatment strategies in terms of intensity.
Sources:
Burton, N. (2009) Master Your Mind Oxford: Acheron Press.
Lurie, M. (2007) Depression: Your Questions Answered London: Dorling Kindersley.
Kate Le Page - Kate Henning-Le Page writes about eating disorders, body image and recovery issues. She specializes in anorexia recovery.
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