How Long Is the Remission Period in Bipolar?

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness that causes extreme highs and lows in mood. The extremes are not simply happy and sad -- they are very pronounced, exhibited as severe depression and elated manic states. According to Google Health, more than 5 million adults are affected by bipolar disorder in the United States alone.

Causes

• Bipolar disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Depression and other anxiety disorders are also caused by changes in the chemistry of the brain.

Treatment and Cure

• Bipolar disorder cannot be cured. However, the symptoms of the illness can be managed with medication and therapy.

Misdiagnosis

• Individuals suffering from bipolar disorder spend an average of 10 years seeking treatment for symptoms before the disorder is properly diagnosed. Somewhere around 70 percent of people suffering from bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed at least once, according to Google Health.

Misdiagnosis Causes

• People are most apt to pay attention to the depressive episodes and look past the manic episodes. This is the number one reason bipolar disorder is so frequently misdiagnosed.

Diagnosis

• There are no lab tests, blood tests or X-rays that can determine whether a person has bipolar disorder. Health care professionals diagnose bipolar disorder by carefully examining the patient's history and symptoms over a period of time.

Symptoms

• There are two aspects to bipolar disorder: manic episodes and depressive episodes. Symptoms of manic episodes include, but are not limited to, a feeling of being on top of the world and elevated happiness. Some people may be irritable and agitated during manic episodes. These feelings can lead to aggressive behavior, which is the main symptom of the manic aspect of bipolar disorder. Additional symptoms of manic episodes are talking too fast and too much, an inflated feeling of power and importance, racing thoughts, intensity and intense focus, needing little to no sleep and impulsive behavior.

  The symptoms of the depressive episode in bipolar disorder range from significant weight loss or weight gain to insomnia, restlessness, sluggishness, loss of energy, fatigue, indecisiveness and recurrent thoughts of death and suicide.

Remission

• Health care professionals are in agreement that while there may not be a cure for bipolar disorder, there are treatment options to manage the symptoms, thereby rendering the disease asymptomatic, according to the Psychiatric Times. Some health care professionals consider this asymptomatic phase to be a remission period.

  The remission period in bipolar disorder is different than a remission period in cancer in that the symptoms are no longer visible. With cancer remission, there is no cancer detected in the individual whereas with bipolar disorder remission the symptoms are simply no longer visible.

  Some patients with bipolar disorder tend to stop their medication and therapy when they are asymptomatic. Once they do this, the symptoms return, which would indicate that remission is not an accurate term to describe the asymptomatic state of the disease.

  The asymptomatic period of bipolar disorder can last anywhere from weeks to years depending upon the medication and therapy regimen.