bipolar research studies
Bipolar disorder or manic depression, is a serious mental illness that has eluded doctors for decades. For many years, patients with impaired were diagnosed as bipolar or psychotic Schitsophrinia. However, some twenty years ago, manic depression became more common diagnosis. Specialists in psychiatry remains, however, did not really understand the disease.
Over time, more psychiatric evidence has surfaced that shows that bipolar disorder, as it is now called, is actually caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Other factors, both medical and situation, can participate too. In recent years, psychiatrists and researchers have determined that bipolar disorder actually has varying degrees of severity, and and the types of symptoms.
Studies of bipolar patients conducted by psychiatric professionals and researchers have long suggested that bipolar disorder runs in families, or, in other words, is hereditary. Through careful study and research on brain function, has now been determined how this disease is indeed hereditary and biological in nature.
According to research published in the American Journal of Psychiatry in the year 2000 patients with bipolar disorder actually have a thirty percent more brain cells of some sort that have to do with sending signals in the brain. These additional cells in the brain causes brain of patients actually behave differently, which predisposes them to have periods of mania or depression.
According to the researchers, this type of brain cell regulates moods, how a person responds to stress and cognitive functions. When additional brain cells are present, the congestion of the cells regulate a type of mood or cognitive function is overloaded, and therefore produce an episode of mania or depression. Not yet known by psychiatric researchers, however, why patients with bipolar disorder have these additional brain cells. To find this, more genetic research will be needed.
In addition to brain cells and chemical brain, has also been speculated by psychiatric researchers that several genes in the genetic makeup of bipolar patients may also contribute to the cause and the hereditary nature of bipolar disorder. Studies have been underway to experiment with the elimination of the gene in mice. Evidence suggests that circadian genes, that regulate mood, hormones, blood pressure and heart activity may be associated with bipolar disorder. In particular, the absence or alteration gene seems to make reality mania episodes.
However, more research needs to be done. Medical and psychiatric and medical researchers have much more to learn about the brain and how it functions. While current treatments seem to work for bipolar disorder, also have serious side effects. Often medications prescribed for bipolar disorder have to be controlled, dose, time, or drugs for patients who switched completely to maintain balance. The more we learn about the brain and its functions, the more we learn about the physical, biological causes of bipolar disorder. The more we learn about causes of bipolar disorder, the more likely that effective treatments can be found that side effects and offer little more permanent treatment options for bipolar patients.
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Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Psychiatric Evidence of Bipolar Disorder
Why Does Bipolar Disorder Happen
