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Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar Disorder
Breawn D. Mitchell
HCA/240
May 19, 2013
Pamela S. Card

Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is a severe mental condition that causes a person to have emotions that are extremely intense and unpredictable. Individuals with this condition will change from ultimate cheerfulness, energy, and clarity to complete anguish, fatigue, and agitation. Suffering from this condition could lead to suicide. The individual can experience moods that are highly elevated that can last a minimum of a week and make the person unable to function. This mood change is known as manic or mania. When the individual experiences these elevated changes they may not necessarily become depressed (American Psychological Association, 2013). Understanding the history of bipolar disorder may help one to understand the signs, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments.
As early as the 1st Century, Aretaeus of Cappadocia took the time to keep track of the symptoms of the disorder. He had made note of the relationship between depression and mania that went unnoticed for centuries. The Ancient Greeks and Romans began to use the terms “mania” and “melancholia”. Religious views pointed out that individuals with the disorder were thought to be possessed, so they were often put to death. Robert Burton wrote a book entitled The Anatomy of Melancholy in the 17th Century. The book addressed treatment for melancholy, the effects of depression, and a commentary of depression. Theophilus Bonet published Sepuchretum later in that century. He completed thousands of autopsies and linked mania and melancholy to an illness called manico-melancolicus. In 1854, Jules Baillarger and Pierre Falret introduced a description of the disorder individually. Baillarger called the disorder folie à double forme meaning dual-form insanity and Falret termed the condition folie circulaire meaning circular insanity. Falret

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