Bipolar Disorders

PSYCHIATRY

Bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive episode, is a chronic mental illness responsible for mood disorders, most often alternating between states of exaltation and depression.(1)

  • Bipolar disorder is a chronic psychiatric illness characterized by recurrent mood disorders; it was formerly called manic-depressive psychosis (1).
  • In sick people, mood typically oscillates between:
    • Maniac episodes
      • Exaltation phases, where patients are extremely active, even agitated and sometimes feel euphoric and exalted.
    • Depressive episodes
      • Mood decline phases, following a manic phase, where patients may experience great sadness and lose all desire for activity (1).
    • The remission intervals
      • Between these manic and depressive episodes, mood can return to normal, or almost normal (1).

(1) AMELI: Les troubles bipolaires (consulté le 01/08/2018)