What Are the Causes of Bipolar Disorders?
Bipolar disorder, or manic-depressive disorder, is a brain disorder that causes abnormal shifts in energy, mood and activity levels. Everyone experiences ups and downs in life but people with bipolar disorder experience them so severely that their lives are disrupted. These shifts in mood are referred to as manic (high) and depressive (low) episodes. The exact cause of bipolar is unknown, but there are many factors that work together to cause the disorder.
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Genetic Factors
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There is an overwhelming amount of evidence that proves that bipolar disorder can be inherited. This same evidence proves that there is also a genetic vulnerability to developing the disorder. A person with one parent that has bipolar disorder has a 15 to 25 percent chance of also having the disorder. Bipolar disorder tends to "run in families," about half the people with bipolar disorder have a family member with a mood disorder, such as depression or anxiety. A person who has an identical twin with bipolar disorder has greater than a 25 percent chance of developing the illness. This is about an eightfold greater risk than a nonidentical twin.
Nerochemical Factors
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Bipolar disorder is primarily a biological disorder. It occurs in a specific area of the brain and is due to the dysfunction of neurotransmitters in the brain. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that are found in the brain. These chemicals may involve serotonin, norepinephrine and probably many others. As a biological disorder, bipolar may lie dormant in the brain and be activated on its own or it may be triggered by environmental factors such as social circumstances or psychological stress.
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Environmental Factors:
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Research has found that stressful life events are the main environmental cause of the onset of symptoms of bipolar disorder. These events can range from the loss of a job, the birth of a child, moving to the lose of a job. It can be hard to define an exact event since one person's stress may be just another day in the life of someone else. Once the disorder is triggered and progresses, the cycle begins and psychological and/or biological processes take over and keep the illness active. The severity of each case is different and depends on the person affected.
Medication Triggered Mania During Depressive Episodes:
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Antidepressant medications can trigger a manic episode in a person suffering from a depressive episode if that person is susceptible to bipolar disorder. Depressive episodes have to be treated carefully in those people who have had manic episodes since a depressive episode can turn into a manic episode when an antidepressant medication is taken. In these situations an antipsychotic drug is also recommended to be paired with the antidepressant drug in order to prevent a manic episode. The antipsychotic drug partially protects the person from antidepressant-induced mania. If you have a family history of bipolar disorder, notify your physician to help avoid the risk of a medication-induced manic episode.
All Factors Combined
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If you are looking for a cause of bipolar disorder, the best explanation available is the Diathesis-Stress Model. Diathesis is a physical condition that makes a person highly susceptible to certain diseases. The Diathesis-Stress Model says that each person inherits certain physical vulnerabilities to problems that may or may not appear depending on what stresses occur in a persons life. If a person is susceptible to bipolar disorder than stress may prompt onset of the disorder. The bottom line is that if a person is manic depressive it is because that person was born with the possibility of developing the disorder and something in their life set it off.
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