Questions and Answers
What is Bipolar Disorder?
Bipolar Disorder is a brain disorder that causes unusual shifts in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Different from the normal ups and downs that everyone goes through, the symptoms of Bipolar Disorder are severe.
Who does Bipolar Disorder affect?
Bipolar Disorder affects 2.4 million people in Europe.[10] Men and women have similar rates of Bipolar Disorder. However, women are more likely to be hospitalised during manic episodes [11 12] and more likely to have predominantly depressive features [13]
Peak onset of Bipolar Disorder occurs between the ages of 15 and 19[14] and there is an average of eight years delay from a patient’s first recollected mood episode to receiving a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder[15].
What does living with Bipolar Disorder mean?
Bipolar Disorder can be a debilitating illness that has far reaching effects on those affected, their families and society. It affects relationships and prevents people from leading fulfilling and productive working and personal lives.
Bipolar Disorder can have a severe impact on the patient's family and caregivers. Partners and families can have significant problems in their relationships with people who have Bipolar Disorder, and these difficulties affect caregivers' own employment, legal matters, finances and social relationships.[17 18]
If a person with Bipolar Disorder is diagnosed in their 20s and left untreated, they could lose an estimated 12 years of good health, 14 years of work activity, and their life expectancy could be shortened by 9 years.[19] However, when Bipolar Disorder is effectively managed, people with the illness can lead healthy and productive lives.[1]
How is bipolar disorder treated?
The World Federation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry (WFSBP) Guidelines [20]recommend antidepressants, mood stabilisers and atypical antipsychotics as the main classes of treatment for Bipolar I Disorder. However, the choice of individual and combinations of treatments will be decided by physicians on a case-by-case basis taking into consideration the following aspects:
- Predominance of mania or hypomanic episodes versus depressive episodes over the course of illness
- Severity of episodes
- Associated psychotic symptoms and the number of episodes in which they occurred
- Whether previous episodes were or were not related to concurrent treatment with antidepressants or use or misuse of psychostimulants
- Long-term tolerability of the medication considered
- Patient preferences
