Psychology

This paper is to show and present articles to show the investigation of a specific mood or mental disorder. The main objective of the paper is to define DSM and mental disorder. TheDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), is the standard classification of mental disorders used by mental health professionals in the United States. It is published by the HYPERLINK httpadd.about.comodglossaryahgAPA.htm American Psychiatric Association. The DSM contains a listing of psychiatric disorders and their corresponding diagnostic codes (About.com, 20010).

There are a number of psychological mood disorders. These may be based on either genetics or based on situations and events that might have occurred in their lives. Mental or mood disorder is a clinically significant behavioural or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress (e.g., a painful symptom) or disability (i.e., impairment in one or more important areas of functioning)it must not be merely an expectable and culturally sanctioned response to a particular eventNeither deviant behavior (e.g., political, religious or sexual) nor conflicts that are primarily between the individual and society are mental disorders unlessthis is a symptom of the dysfunction (DSM-IV, APA, 1994).

Depression
To ordinary people, the word depression is used lightly.  Even a normal person, who just had a bad turn I life or merely just did not get his way may say that he feels depressed.  But the term depression has a deeper meaning and scientific definition.  In psychiatry, depression is a symptom ofmood disordercharacterized by intense feelings of loss, sadness, hopelessness, failure, and rejection. The two major types ofmood disorderare unipolar disorder, also called major depression, and bipolar disorder, whose sufferers are termed manic-depressive. Other types of depression are recognized, with characteristics similar to the majormood disorders, but not as severe they are adjustment disorder with depression, dysthymic disorder, and cyclothymic disorder (Wolpert L. , 2000).

Having defined depression and finding out that there are 2 other kinds that fall under its umbrella unipolar and bipolar disorders.  Bipolar disorder is much rarer, affecting only about 1 of the U.S. population women and men tend to be equally susceptible. Its sufferers alternate between states of depressionsimilar to that which is experienced in unipolar disorderand mania, which is characterized by intense euphoria and frenetic activity. Bipolar disorders are often interspersed with periods of relatively normal behavior, which may last for long periods of time between episodes of depression or mania. Manic-depressives have an extremely high rate of suicide, and episodes of the disorder tend to recur (Wolpert L. , 2000).

This kind of disorder may hit any kind of person or individual, even adolescents may have this kind of disorder. A few years ago, mental health counsellors and other professionals rarely diagnosedbipolar disorderin adolescence. The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that up to one third of the 3.4 million children and adolescents with depression in the United States may actually be suffering from the onset ofbipolar disorder. In addition, it has been estimated that one third of the children and adolescents diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) may be suffering from emergingbipolar disorder(as cited Wilkinson,G.B., Taylor, T.  Holt J.r.).

Because  this illness may hit children, their young minds may not be able to grasp the essence and gravity of the disorder, in fact they and even their parents may not even know of the illness, young adults turn or tend to try different things and experiment. Adolescents may consume illegal drugs in an attempt to control their mood swings and insomnia. Sudden development of the disorder following puberty often results in addiction to drugs and alcohol in these vulnerable adolescents. It then becomes necessary to treat both thebipolar disorderand the substance abuse (as cited Wilkinson,G.B., Taylor, T.  Holt J.r).  In children and younger adolescents, the disorder is more continuous than in adults with few asymptomatic periods between episodes of depression and mania. Some children and adolescents cycle between depression and mania as few as several times per year, while others cycle within a week or month. However, most bipolar children cycle between depression to mania several times throughout the day. This mixed state can cause them to feel full of energy, restless, worthless, and self-destructive simultaneously (as cited Wilkinson,G.B., Taylor, T.  Holt J.r).

Treatment
Though this may sound dreadful, bipolar may be treated and there is still hope for those to experience and go through life as normal as others.  Antidepressants are safe to use with mood stabilizers but ease bipolar depression no better than placebo pills do, report psychiatrist Gary S. Sachs of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and his colleagues. Their investigation, the largest ever of bipolar disorder, appears online and in the April 26 New England Journal of Medicine (Bower,B., 2007). Clinicians must adjust treatment to an individuals symptoms, comments psychiatrist Robert H. Belmaker of Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba, Israel, in an editorial published with the new report. For example, Belmaker prescribes only antidepressants to patients with severe depression that alternates with mild mania and gives mood stabilizers to most other bipolar patients (Bower, B., 2007).