Summary: The history of bipolar disease, or bipolar disorder, began in the 2nd century AD, but was not thoroughly studied until contemporary psychotherapy developed in the 1850s. Find out how medication began being used for treatment of bipolar disorder in the 1950s with information from a licensed mental health counselor in this free video on bipolar disorder.
Dr. David Thomas has been certified as a licensed mental health counselor in the state of Florida since 1986 and in the National Board of Certified Counselors since 1987. He has worked...read more
"I'm Dr. David Thomas. I'm a Practicing Psychotherapist with the Whitford Thomas Group in Tampa, Florida; here to discuss the history of bipolar disease. When we refer to the disease of bipolar, probably it's better to refer to it as a bipolar disorder. The first indications that physicians and scientists were looking at bipolar disorder probably occurred in the 2nd century AD. The more contemporary psychotherapy, we begin to see in 1850's physicians and psychiatrist beginning to really study what bipolar disorder was at that time. They didn't have any type of medications to, to help with the disorder and so they begin to just notice and track and pay attention to it with patients all over a, a period of time. And what they oftentimes saw was that bipolar disorder tend to come and go and so they begin to recognize that bipolar disorder has varying degrees of, of mood disturbance. Again, mania or the melancholy with depression piece. And current temporary times we begin to use medications to assist them bipolar disorder as late as late 50's or late, or late 40's or early 50's. And in certainly psychotherapy wasn't still in its emphases at that time and so it wasn't until the 60's, late 70's we begin to use the cognitive behavior approach to deal with the thinking and the mood in dealing with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder today can be detected in childhood. Historically, it was primarily seen in later adolescence, early adults; but today we're seeing that bipolar disorder can be diagnose as early as childhood, oftentimes confused with attention deficit, hyperactivity, a conduct disorder or just childhood depression. I hope this information has been helpful regarding the history of bipolar disorder. From Tampa, Floria, I'm Dr. David Thomas."
eHow Article: History of Bipolar Disease
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