Rapid Cycling and it’s Treatment for Bipolar

Bipolar Disorder is a disorder that affects over 2.5 million people in the United States. Bipolar Disease causes mood swings in the person making them feel really, really good, but can change quickly to make you feel really, really, down. The mood swings can last for days up to months. Most of the time, however, the episodes of mood swings happen twice a year and most commonly occur during the spring and fall seasons. A manic episode is defined by the DBSA as, A distinct period of elevated, enthusiastic or irritable mood lasting at least one week.

A similar occurrence called a hypomanic episode happens just like a manic episode, only less severe. The hypomanic episodes differ from manic episodes in the sense that they don't cause delusions or hallucinations. The bipolar disease also causes episodes where the human feels super down and has thoughts of suicide. These episodes are called Major Depressive Episodes (MDE), and they happen 5ish weeks and cause depressive effects for 2 weeks. The article went on to explain the major symptoms that the MDE can cause such as loss of energy or even thoughts of death/suicide.

The article continued to talk about the mixed state, which is also referred to as mixed mania. Mixed Mania is a rare occasion where the mania and depressive symptoms happen at the same time in a person. The mixed state can cause a person to feel full of energy, but it can also make people feel depressed and not want to do anything. The mixed mania state can cause extreme thoughts of aggravation or even suicide.

Rapid Cycling is defined by the DBSA as four or more manic, hypomanic, or depressive episodes in any 12-month period. The mood swings when having rapid cycling are way more severe and go to extreme levels of highs and lows. The swings can be way more frequent and can happen in the span of hours. The episodes can happen at any time and the symptoms are more random then the occurrence in mood swings. You could go from feeling like a million bucks to having thoughts of suicide in the span of hours. Also, the longer the episodes, the less extreme the rapid cycling is. If the episodes are smaller, then the mood swings are going to be very different from one another.

Rapid Cycling can develop in many different people and in many different ways. More than half of the people who experience Bipolar Disease will experience Rapid Cycling during their treatment or illness. Rapid Cycling can increase or worsen when people are giving medications, such as antidepressants, and the cycling can die down or decrease when the person is taken off of the medication or treatments. The medications are used because, when they are not used, the episodes of depression and sadness can increase, causing suicidal thoughts or actions once again. There have been studies that concluded that there can be a connection between drug usage and rapid cycling. The article went on to say that families with Bipolar experience less Rapid Cycling in households without drugs and alcohol then households where a family member does drink or use drugs.

The Article concludes with the fact that rapid cycling can differ in different forms of Bipolar disorder. Rapid cycling is by far the hardest symptom to treat from Bipolar Disorder, and one of the hardest symptoms to treat in all of the mental disorders found today. This disorder causes very serious thoughts and actions, and causes people to be close to their doctors, and tell them if any serious things happen, or have happened in the past. However, plenty of progress has been made into this field of research, and there is expected to breakthroughs in the next decade to help try to solve this horrible disease.

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