Women experience depressive episodes more often than men experience mania.
In bipolar disorder, which is a mood disorder, the person cannot regulate his/her emotions and cannot control the intensity and speed of emotions. Stating that there is no gender discrimination in bipolar disorder, experts said, "It occurs equally in both sexes. However, the frequency of depressive episodes in bipolar disorder is higher in women and the frequency of manic episodes is higher in men."
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that damages relationships and careers due to risky behaviors and can lead to suicide when left untreated. March 30, World Bipolar Day, is commemorated around the world on the birthday of the famous painter Vincent Van Gogh, who himself had possible bipolar disorder. The aim is to raise awareness about bipolar disorder, which affects 2 to 5 out of every 100 people in the world, to contribute to the lives of patients and their relatives and to prevent stigmatization.
EMOTIONS CANNOT BE REGULATED
Üsküdar University NPISTANBUL Hospital Psychiatry Specialist Prof. Dr. Sermin Kesebir stated that bipolar disorder is a mood disorder and said, "It is a disorder in the field of mood. It can be defined as not being able to regulate emotions, not being able to control the intensity and speed of emotions."
BIPOLAR DISORDER HAS TWO ENDS
Stating that symptoms such as enthusiasm, irritability or mobility, acceleration in thoughts, increase in purposeful activity, decrease in the need for sleep are experienced in the manic period of the disease, Prof. Dr. Kesebir said, "In depression, the other end of this, that is, depression, sadness, demoralization, pessimism, not enjoying the things that were previously enjoyed, reluctance, sleep problems, changes in appetite, changes in sexual desire, changes in attention in the cognitive field may occur."
Stating that there is no gender discrimination in bipolar disorder, Prof. Dr. Kesebir said, "It occurs equally in both sexes. However, the frequency of depressive episodes in bipolar disorder is higher in women and the frequency of manic episodes is higher in men."
"The most important feature of bipolar disorder is that it is bipolar, but it has another very important feature: It is cyclical and rhythmic," Prof. Dr. Sermin Kesebir said, "Seasonality is also important in that sense, there are situations such as the menstrual cycle being affected in women, or being affected by pregnancy and puerperium processes. It can be confused with seasonality at this point; if a life event or a stress factor has triggered the disease, its anniversaries can be seen as seasonality. Seasonality is seen in one fifth of bipolar patients, not in all of them."
PERSONALITY TRAITS ARE EFFECTIVE
Stating that there are three factors in the development of bipolar disorder, Prof. Dr. Sermin Kesebir listed them as individual factors, factors related to the disease itself and environmental factors. "In individual factors, personality structures of individuals are more prone to the disease. The extroverted colorful temperament types with high self-confidence, which we call hyperthymic temperament. The other is cyclothymic temperament. In this personality type, the person is more melancholic, but sunny melancholics, that is, enthusiasm, followed by that haughty introverted style. We see bipolar disorder more frequently in these types of personalities."
BEING IN THE FAMILY INCREASES THE RISK
Stating that bipolar, which has the highest genetic burden among psychiatric disorders, is more likely to be seen in the child if one of the parents has it, Kesebir said, "Family history is very important. If the parents have it, the risk increases even more. Bipolar disorder is one of the diseases with the highest genetic risk after autism among psychiatric diseases."
Stating that life events are important in terms of pulling the trigger in the emergence of the disease, Prof. Dr. Sermin Kesebir said, "Facing a stressor can be preceded by childhood traumas, especially emotional abuse, emotional neglect."
Stating that there are some symptoms of bipolar disorder, Prof. Dr. Sermin Kesebir said, "If the person is doing something different than usual, that is, every person has a standard structure that everyone knows. Situations that deviate from this may arise in the person. Interpersonal relationships deteriorate, anger, then aggression, one click further, irritability and one click further, skepticism. During this period, the person is more affected by something they would not always care about. Risk-taking behavior increases. These people experience many situations such as random sexual intercourse, uncontrolled shopping or unnecessary spending of money that they will later regret and be ashamed of."
CREATIVITY DECREASES AS THE DISEASE PROGRESSES
Referring to the fact that bipolar disorder is seen as an artist's disease in society, Kesebir said the following about this issue: "If the severity of the emotion is high, we can say that it will stimulate some creative processes. We see that many painters and writers create their most important works during the depressive period in the early stages of the disease. However, creativity decreases as the disease progresses."
TREATMENT METHODS
Speaking about the treatment methods in bipolar, Kesebir stated that outpatient treatment is possible in mild or moderate cases and said, "Inpatient treatment is required in severe cases. Inpatient treatment is of great importance in order to prevent the person from doing some things that he/she will regret later and harming himself/herself or someone else. In inpatient treatment, pharmaco-therapy is applied, that is, we give the patient medication. In addition, if we are going to provide somatic treatment, TMU therapy or Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is applied."