Types of Bipolar Affective Disorder

Bipolar disorder is also known as manic depression. A bipolar disorder patient will experience greatly varying mood swings for months at a time and, in some cases, within hours of each other. The length of the mood swing and degree of mania, however, all depend on the type of bipolar disorder a patient has.

Bipolar Diagnosis

• The National Institute of Mental Health says a bipolar patient experiences very high and very low mood swings known as mania and depression, respectively. The periods of either mood swing can last for a number of weeks or months on average, followed by a "balanced" period in between. Each subset of bipolar disorder--Bipolar 1, Bipolar 2, Cyclothymic and Rapid Cycling--experiences these swings but in differing degrees.

Mania

• In mania, the patient experiences periods of mania, in which the general mood is extremely high-energy. Mania is attributed to Bipolar 1 disorder diagnosed patients. Bipolar 1 patients tend to speak rapidly or have pressured speech, with topics jumping from one to the next. Extra energy for them needs to be expended through physical activity, dangerous actions or hypersexual acts. Sometimes the mania can induce audio or visual hallucinations coupled with paranoia. Manic episodes can last for weeks to months in Bipolar 1 patients.

Hypomania

• Hypomania is a lesser-form of mania. The energy levels are still higher than normal, but hypomania is generally more controllable. Hypomania is attributed to Bipolar 2 patients. They will feel less need for sleep and will want to push for more social activity and goals. Speech is rapid and ideas can flow from one to the next during a hypomanic episode.

Depression

• Depression can be attributed to both Bipolar 1 and 2, although depressive episodes tend to last longer with Bipolar 2 patients. Depression usually follows a period of balanced mood after mania. In it, the patient will feel a general disinterest in what was once fun. They can have a negative outlook on life and experience feelings of guilt, sometimes associated with events that happened during manic and hypomanic episodes. For example, Bipolar 1 patients during mania my frivolously spend money, only to later feel depressed about the bills owed and financial strains now put on the family. Depression can elicit symptoms of sleep difficulty, too much sleep, lack of emotion and a willingness to "end it all". According to the National institute of Mental Health, 10 to 15 percent of depressed patients complete suicide.

Cyclothymic

• A cyclothymic diagnosis describes a patient who experiences both hypomanic and depressed moments. But the moments do not last long enough to qualify as episodes. Cyclothymic patients, for example, may have a manic episode that lasts four days, a period of balanced mood for two months, and then a depressed episode for one week, followed by a three-day manic episode one month later.

Rapid Cycling

• Rapid cycling describes bipolar patients who experience the manic and depressive episodes in relatively close periods. Per the DSM-IV, a book that mental health professionals use to diagnose patients, rapid cycling means that there have been at least four mood changes within a 12-month period. However, rapid cycling mood changes can happen within weeks, days or even hours.