Talk:Bipolar spectrum

Affective spectrum disorder
I was thinking about creating a page for "Affective Spectrum Disorder", but suspect the content might go better here... "Although it is officially considered a personality disorder rather than an affective/mood disorder, some experts advocate adding borderline personality disorder (BPD) to the bipolar spectrum. BPD has a lot of similarities to rapid-cycling bipolar type II and other depressive disorders, and many patients show a positive response to the same types of medication." This paragraph addresses specifically the point I wanted to expand upon. My primary source would be Hudson JI, Pope HG Jr. Am J Psychiatry. 1990 May;147(5):552-64. Affective spectrum disorder: does antidepressant response identify a family of disorders with a common pathophysiology? . Does this make more sense as a separate page, or an expansion of this one? Amayzes 04:16, 2005 Mar 8 (UTC)

Bipolar spectrum vs. affective spectrum
Is this the same thing as affective spectrum? --Smack (talk) 00:52, 23 September 2005 (UTC)


 * No, bipolar spectrum includes only disorders that feature manic or hypomanic symptoms. The affective spectrum is a more inclusive list of disorders that includes all disorders with mood symptoms, including major depression, dysthymia, and schizoaffective disorder. Steve CarlsonTalk 05:56, 19 November 2007 (UTC)

Unipolar mania
The bipolar spectrum does not range from bipolar disorder to depression. It ranges from unipolar mania (rare but real) to unipolar depression.

Combine with bipolar disorder
it should be a subsection there. The "spectrum" concept should be discussed in that context rather than a separate articleExpo512 (talk) 09:50, 24 November 2007 (UTC)


 * I tend to agree, though my only issue would be the ultimate length of the parent article.cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 20:52, 2 February 2008 (UTC)


 * STRONGLY DISAGREE
 * As someone with generations of Bipolar I and Bipolar II in friends and family, married to a psychiatrist for 20 years and having worked closely with doctors treating the disorders for 5 years, plus having closely and continuously kept up with ongoing research studies, I feel kinda qualified to comment on this.


 * Bipolar spectrum deals with everything as follows:


 * what doctors call Depression, but which lasts for decades, a lifetime - and is not connected to any loss or source of sadness - it just is.
 * Actually, in all the bipolar spectrum, even tho mania is what one hears most about, depression is the over-riding, most prevalent state of emotion.
 * Agitated depression and vegetative depressions are found in abundance. If you treat an agitated depression, seeing the only "symptom" which is free-floating overwhelming anxiety, with valium, the next day your patient will be suicidally depressed - even tho the anxiety will have, of course, disappeared.


 * Bipolar I is the only disorder originally recognized as such and was officially labeled Manic-Depression. Little or no attention was given to the depression, but the readily recognized Manic Symptoms, ranging from rapid speech reflecting the racing brain, grandiose (and ludicrous) plans to become very wealthy, spending money like there was no tomorrow, maxing out credit cards, by outrageous behavior very out of the usual for the patient and sometimes extreme sexual promiscuity or sexual encounters far from the usual norm for the patient.   As the mania progressed, uncontrollable speech, delusions and psychosis could develop.  Involuntary hospitalization was the only possible treatment.   This degree of the disorder is referred to Hyper-Mania.


 * Lithium was the first and for a long time was the only medication available to control the mania, but did nothing for the depression since the tricyclics weren't around yet.  Which was most unfortunate, for patients can go for years without a manic break, yet still have problems with irritability, social dysfunction and a heightened risk of suicide.   Bipolars at any point on the spectrum are routinely denied life insurance.


 * Treatment begins with Lithium, progresses to Depakote (both of these require relatively frequent blood tests so toxicity does not develop), then to anti-psychotics if the other treatments fail or have too many side effects. Of course, antipsychotics have their own side effects, especially tremendous weight gain in the new-generation "safer" ones.


 * In Bipolar II, a more recently recongnized form on the bipolar spectrum, has manias most with a stretch of a few days or more of elevated enthusiastic very happy mood with tons of energy used in a very goal-directed productive manner but they will not need any sleep, tho as the days go by, a periodic nap of 3 hours at the most.  I have had therapists tell me that their idea employee would be this type of patient (as long as the Hypo-Mania lasted).


 * A patient may have even as little as 5 or fewer such episodes in their entire lives, yet years of depressive problems at other times. Or they may be Rapid Cyclers with several episodes of greater or lesser degree of being "upbeat" a year, Ultra Rapid Cyclers and even the now recognized Ultra-Ultra Rapid Cyclers that may cycle several times a week or even during a single day.  And they generally are kept continuously antidepressants.  But the tale-tell characteristic of these patients is IMPULSIVENESS which leads to problems in all facets of their education, employment, friendships and more intimate relationships.


 * Depending upon circumstances in their lives at the time, they may enter a period of extreme irritability, frequent emotional outbursts, whether of torrents of tears or yelling rages. Impulsiveness alternates with the inability to get organized enough to plan, execute plans and they can become unable to be gainfully employed.


 * For Bipolar IIs, Lamictal, a relatively new anticonvulsant, is the drug of choice, the first one to try, because it controls impulsiveness and helps the patient direct their own life towards goals and follow thru to a successful conclusion, plus it has an anti-depressant effect.   The antidepressants most often prescribed are an old tricyclic called desipramine and the atypical Wellbutrin (also marketed to stop smoking).


 * In short, the bipolar spectrum of disorders is impossible to deal with in one article. This particular article should be expanded to point out that someone diagnosed with a bipolar illness is much more likely to have ADD/ADHD, Borderline PD and other PDs, dual diagnosis (which means co-existing with drug & alcohol abuse as the patient attempts to "self-medicate").   And there are more.


 * In recent MRI studies, those with bipolar illness have been found to have specific brain differences from the general population. The reason anti-convulsants are thought to be effective has evolved from a theory that the impulsiveness originates in the too-rapid firing of certain brain cells, over-riding the brain structures vital in normal inhibitory effects...  Bipolar requires smaller doses than in persons with epilepsy.  Spotted Owl (talk) 01:09, 5 February 2008 (UTC)

I made some links that hopefully will address concerns. 1. When searching on phrase "Bipolar Spectrum Disorder", there was a redirect to Bipolar article. I replaced that with a link to Bipolar spectrum and one to Bipolar; thus users have a choice of one or the other (or both) 2. I have added a link on this article to bipolar 3. I have added more links on the bipolar article back to this article Having said that, the Bipolar disorder article is rather strong and far more developed than this article. In my opinion, this article (as currently written), adds little to the understanding of the spectrum; in part, because the Bipolar disorder article already mentions the spectrum several times. --Nohoguy (talk) 08:55, 10 August 2010 (UTC)

References are not accessible
Foot note 5 contains a link to a Harvard site that is not accessible. The reference is stronger when someone can go and track it down easily. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.118.177.86 (talk) 16:46, 24 July 2010 (UTC)

Admin noticeboard Incidents re COI re Bipolar disorder and Bipolar spectrum at WP?
Admin noticeboard Incidents re COI re Bipolar disorder and Bipolar spectrum at WP? ParkSehJik (talk) 04:05, 30 November 2012 (UTC)

Merging w/ Main Bipolar Article.
This should be merged w/ Bipolar Article. It was first proposed almost three years ago. What next???johncheverly 22:24, 6 May 2013 (UTC)johncheverly 22:31, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

  johncheverly 22:39, 6 May 2013 (UTC)


 * After being nominated for merging nearly three years ago, I finally merged it into Bipolar Disorder. johncheverly 17:20, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
 * See Articles for deletion/Bipolar spectrum. – Wbm1058 (talk) 12:54, 9 May 2013 (UTC)