Bipolar Disorder (or manic-depressive disorder, or bipolarism or bipolar depression) is a mood disorder that affects approximately 3% of people over a lifetime, although approximately 5-10% of the general population suffers from mental disorders. affective sphere. It is a complex disorder, difficult to recognise, also because the clinical picture is multifaceted and frequently associated with other psychiatric disorders such as substance abuse, psychotic symptoms (such as delusions and hallucinations), personality disorders, anxiety disorders impulse control disorders.

The subject who has bipolar disorder is not aware of having it in most cases, because the hypomanic and manic phases are perceived as normal. It is a disorder which, if not recognized and treated correctly, can have serious consequences: many hours of work lost, breakdown of emotional relationships, periods of excessive and unmotivated spending, periods of greater sexual disinhibition or greater quarrelsomeness and nervousness, greater risk of suicide, as well as a lot of subjective suffering.

There are 3 types of disorder:

– Bipolar disorder type I: characterized by the presence of a manic episode throughout life, regardless of the presence or absence of other depressive or hypomanic episodes, which however are frequently associated with episodes of mania.

– Bipolar disorder type II: characterized by the presence throughout life of one or more major depressive episodes accompanied by at least one hypomanic episode.

– Cyclothymic disorder (or cyclothymia): characterized by the alternation of depressive and hypomanic episodes of mild intensity but with high frequency, which lead to a substantial long and uninterrupted phase of illness lasting at least two years, with behavioral changes that cause significant psychosocial complications.