Course 1: What is bipolar disorder?

Explore the signs and symptoms of bipolar disorder, including mania, hypomania, and depression, and learn that this course guides you to seek professional diagnosis, not a replacement for the DSM.

Mania, a manic episode, elevates mood and energy for a week with reduced sleep and rapid talking; it impairs functioning and may require hospitalization, distinguishing bipolar I or II.

A major depressive episode requires five or more symptoms for two weeks or longer, including sadness, loss of interest, and sleep or appetite changes, causing significant distress and impairment.

Identify hypomania as mood and energy lasting at least four days. Note inflated self-esteem, decreased sleep, talkativeness, and racing thoughts, distinguishing it from mania in bipolar two disorder.

Explore mixed mood states in bipolar disorder, where mania, hypomania, and depression overlap, highlighting impulsivity, suicide risk, and the phenomenon of rapid cycling with four episodes a year.

Psychosis is not required for bipolar diagnosis and mostly occurs during manic episodes in bipolar one. It can include delusions, hallucinations, grandiose or paranoid beliefs, and impaired functioning.

Compare schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder for mood and psychosis. Note schizophrenia shows severe, mood-independent psychosis; bipolar may feature delusions during mood episodes; schizoaffective requires concurrent mood and psychosis.

Share how a misdiagnosis of schizophrenia delayed effective bipolar treatment, highlights proper support, psychiatric screening, and recognizing signs of bipolar disorder, and shows how lithium and antipsychotics can restore stability.

Provide an overview of the causes of bipolar disorder, focusing on genetics, environmental factors, and substances.

Explore bipolar disorder's heritability of at least 58%, with immediate relatives up to eight times higher risk, and note that 25% of offspring with a parent affected develop bipolar disorder.

Explore how environmental factors and stressful life events influence the severity, onset, and daily functioning in bipolar disorder, highlighting anxiety, depressive symptoms, and coping strategies.

Explore circadian rhythms, the biological clock, and how sleep-wake cycles influence mood in bipolar disorder. Learn how sunlight, routines, and seasonal factors relate to manic, hypomanic, or depressive episodes.

Some medications can mimic mania or hypomania, including corticosteroids, L-dopa, antidepressants, stimulants, caffeine, cocaine, and amphetamine; antidepressants can trigger manic episodes but may be used with a mood stabilizer.

Cannabis can affect people with bipolar disorder in varied ways, with anecdotal reports of benefits and risks depending on thc and cbd levels, quantity, frequency, anxiety, manic episodes, and psychosis.

Identify bipolar one, bipolar two, and bipolar three disorders, detailing manic episodes lasting seven days or hospitalization, depressive and hypomanic symptoms, and duration criteria for adults and youths.

Explore the link between anxiety disorders and bipolar disorder, including prevalence, treatment challenges, and suicide risk, plus co occurring conditions like PTSD, personality disorders, ADHD, and substance use.

Explore how bipolar disorder relates to neurotransmitters: serotonin, noradrenaline, and dopamine, and how disruptions in serotonin circuits and dopamine pathways relate to depression, mania, and psychosis, with implications for treatment.

Celebrate completing course one and summarize definitions, signs and symptoms, causes, and types of bipolar disorders and related disorders, while previewing treatments in the next course.