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| Definitions and causes of manic disorder |
What are the relations between religion, culture and manic disorders?
The most common mood disorder is unipolar depression, discussed
in chapter 4. It affects at least one person in ten at some
point in their lifetime. At least one person in a hundred may suffer
from bipolar or cyclothymic mood disorder, swinging from high to
low moods, sometimes with intervening periods of ‘normal’ mood,
which is neither unduly high nor low. The striking feature of bipolar
disorders is mania, characterized by euphoric joy or well-being out
of proportion to events and circumstances, plus at least some of the
following (Comer, 1999):
Some irritability and anger, especially if plans are frustrated
Going without sleep
Poor judgement, following own grandiose ideas and plans and
feeling others are too slow
Self-esteem which approaches grandiosity
Flamboyance
Delusions or hallucinations.
In some forms of bipolar disorder (bipolar II), mania may be
mild (hypomania), and in cyclothymic disorder the swings are not
extreme, going from hypomania to mild depression. Unipolar mania
is not now a recognised clinical or diagnostic category, unlike unipolar
depression.
