What Is Bipolar Disorder Vs Unipolar Depression?

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What Is Bipolar Disorder vs Unipolar Depression?

Introduction

Depression affects more than millions of Americans each year; millions are diagnosed with unipolar depression, also referred to as major depressive disorder or clinical depression. Depression is a common disorder in the general population with life-time prevalence estimated between 4% and 12% (Smith & Weissman, 1992). This paper will discuss bipolar disorder and unipolar depression and how it effects people. What is bipolar disorder?  Bipolar disorder is associated with major psychosocial disability and higher risk of attempted and completed suicide. For most individuals diagnosed with bipolar disorder, the first symptoms are usually experienced in adolescence years. What is unipolar depression?  Unipolar depression is a mood disorder characterized by a depressed mood, a lack of interest in activities normally enjoyed, changes in weight and sleep, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, difficulty concentrating and thoughts of death and suicide. So far, studies do not show a correlation between unipolar depression and certain races and ethnicities. However, the studies have found that more women suffer from it than men. In fact, one in seven women will undergo at least one depressive episode during their lifetime.  Bipolar disorder is almost always severe and mainly associated with social and educational impairment during episodes although normal functioning returns during remissions. Unipolar disorder refers to a bigger range from a single mild life time episode through to severe intractable chronic illness. Brain imaging techniques might offer a useful tool to reveal some critical changes in the brain of bipolar patients and assist in the diagnosis of bipolar. Task-state fMRI shows that bipolar disorder may arise from abnormalities within discrete brain networks. Depression patients have clear suicidal tendencies, and bipolar are more severe than unipolar patients, probably related to the emotional damage of the frontal lobe. Abnormal frontal lobe, parietal lobe and occipital lobe may be related to depression in bipolar disorder and unipolar depression.

Literature review

Bipolar I disorder is a severely chronic disabling mental illness characterized by episodic shifts in mood, energy levels, and social functioning that can be devastating in children and adolescence. Although bipolar disorder is known to be highly heritable (McGuffin et al., 2003), Participants with Bipolar Disorder reported to have more emotional difficulties and mood swings in early childhood compared to the unipolar participants.  They remembered having outbursts of irritability or, anger in their early years. Bipolar disorder is commonly associated with increased impulsivity, particularly during manic and depressed episodes, and unipolar depressive disorder is also associated with increased impulsivity during depressive episodes. Offspring of depressed parents are at increased risk for psychiatric disorders. Although bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder are both found in the same families, it is not clear whether transmission to offspring of bipolar disorder or major depressive disorder tends to occur from parents with the same mood disorder subtype. Parents with bipolar disorder were no more likely than parents with unipolar depression to have offspring with expressing disorders. However, male offspring of either bipolar disorder or unipolar depression were more likely than females to manifest these disorders.

Recent epidemiological data confirm previous research indicating that the risk of developing depressive disorders is considerably higher among women than men, holding true across a variety of different cultural settings.        The relative importance of genetic effects in major depression is the same in men and women. However, the correlations of genetic effects between the sexes were imperfect, indicating that men and women share most, but not all genetic influences for MDD. The female dominance in depression starts with puberty, and the typical sex ratio is reached between the age of 15 and 18 years. There is also evidence for a female preponderance in depression rates in older age groups. While some studies found a declining ratio after menopause, others suggest that higher rates in women are maintained. While evidence for a female dominance in the incidence of unipolar depression is well established, there are more controversial results regarding gender differences in the course of the disorder. Several clinical and non-clinical studies found a similar course for men and women, but a majority of studies identified higher relapse or non-remission rates among women. (Kuehner, 2003)

Unipolar depressive disorder is associated with a high risk of relapse of depression and the risk of relapse increases as the number of previous episodes increases. Many patients do not recover to previous psychosocial function, some patients present with cognitive impairment also during remitted phase, and the risk of developing dementia seems to be increased in the long run. The tendency to relapse can be reduced by continued treatment with antidepressants, and potentially by cognitive behavioral therapy. (Martini K, Bech P, 2003) Furthermore, there is no consistent evidence pointing towards a narrowing gender gap in younger birth cohorts. In addition to higher incidence rates of unipolar depression in women, a majority of studies has also identified higher relapse or non-remission rates in women. Altogether, however, it is clear that sex differences in the course of illness do not suffice for explaining the gender gap in prevalence rates: of prime importance is the difference in incidence rates of depression. (Nolen-Hoeksema, S, 1990)