The seriousness of bipolar cases is indisputable. In fact, many patients who have symptoms of a manic-depression state can be misdiagnosed. Another important fact is that a bipolar test can actually take years before a person is correctly diagnosed. Simply put, this mental illness is very difficult to detect.

When a person with manic-depression disorder is high or manic, it is not surprising that he won’t feel the need for a test. Therefore, only the depressive tendencies are diagnosed most often. The result is an inaccurate diagnosis of the patient, concluding the symptoms as depression only when it is actually a bipolar issue.

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Several types of depression exist. Depressed (or irritable) mood or a loss of interest in pleasurable activities is characteristic of all types, and all types have to cause impairment in functioning. There are some differences in symptom presentation, however, and depression treatment approaches may vary somewhat. The different types of depression include the following:

Major depressive disorderDysthymic disorderSeasonal affective disorderBipolar depressionDepressive disorder not otherwise specifiedIn major depression, qualifiers can be added to the diagnosis, such as “atypical”, “melancholic”, or “post-partum onset”. Such qualifiers describe a specific pattern of symptom presentation. For example, increased appetite, rejection sensitivity, and a sensation of heaviness of the limbs characterize an atypical major depressive episode.

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DEPRESSION as a psycho-medical condition is broadly classified into three types: unipolar depression, major depressive disorder, and bipolar affective depression. Bipolar affective depression is more serious than the other two types, but all can be treated to the point of cure or a high degree of control. In this report we shall look at how to distinguish between the three types of depression.

Unipolar depression: As said above, this is the less serious of the three types of depression but the most common psychiatric illness affecting 6%-10% of adults. Unipolar depression can usually be attributed, directly or indirectly, to an external stimulus such as a recent incident or an event in the patient’s life, or an illness, or side-effects

of dugs. In other words, unipolar depression is ‘reactive depression’.

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The criteria for diagnosis for depression specify that a person is in a depressed mood and/or experience loss of interest or pleasure for two weeks or more. Five or more of the following symptoms may be experienced by the person most of the day almost everyday, such as depressed mood (irritable, feels sad or empty, appears tearful), markedly decreased interest or pleasure in activities he previously enjoyed, significant weight loss or weight gain, insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation or retardation, fatigue or loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive and inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional), diminished ability to think, concentrate and decide, and recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal ideation without a specific plan or a suicide attempt.

The symptoms can cause significant distress or impairment in social and occupational functioning. It is important to note that the symptoms are not caused by effects of any substance taken by the patient. Moreover, the symptoms cannot be accounted for by recent events such as bereavement after losing a loved-one, calamity, or losing a job, house, and the like, (Depression is normal after these events but should last less than two weeks).

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Bipolar depression is different than many forms of depression. With a bipolar disorder, a person experiences mania. Mania allows an individual to experience an extreme high that more than likely will impair judgment.

Bipolar disorder will affect a person their entire life, but with the right treatment plan, a person can cope with bipolar depression as long as they completely understand this illness.

Bipolar depression usually begins in adolescence or early adulthood. However, at this early stage, it is usually not seen as a psychological problem because it is sporadic. Individuals that have this disorder will have unique patterns to their mood cycles.

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