Bipolar depression and bipolar mania are both among the most widespread neuropsychiatric disorders. Although all bipolar disorders are characterized by periods of extreme mood, the main difference between them is the severity of the condition itself. According to Bulut et al. (2021), the neutrophil/lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet/ lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are the highest in these patients. Thus, bipolar mania is more intensive in comparison with other disorders. The extreme episodes can continue for several days or even weeks, making the risk behavior’s probability much higher.
The most common tool that is used for the screening and diagnosis of bipolar disorder is
The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ), is a self-report instrument. However, it is difficult to identify the exact disease only with the help of this screening tool as the ‘positive’ patients on this scale can as well be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) (Zimmerman et al., 2019). Therefore, a further complex examination, including the assessment of general health conditions and psychiatric evaluation, should follow the positive MDQ screening.
As for treatment, there is continuous research on this issue performed by the International Society for Bipolar Disorders to a great extent. According to Yatham et al. (2018), lithium, quetiapine, Divalproex, asenapine, aripiprazole, paliperidone, risperidone, and cariprazine alone or in combination are recommended as the primary treatments for most acute disorders, such as bipolar mania. Cariprazine, for instance, is widely believed to have a unique pharmaceutical profile with a high affinity for D3 dopamine receptors and practical actions on 5HT1A, 5HT2A, and alpha 1B receptors differentiating it from other antipsychotic drugs (Mazza et al., 2018). Hence, although being a serious disease and the most intensive bipolar disorder, even bipolar mania can be effectively treated.
References
Bulut, N. S., Yorguner, N., & Bulut, C. G. (2021). The severity of inflammation in major neuropsychiatric disorders: comparison of neutrophil–lymphocyte and platelet–lymphocyte ratios between schizophrenia, bipolar mania, bipolar depression, major depressive disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry, 75(8), 624-632.
Mazza, M., Marano, G., Traversi, G., Carocci, V., Romano, B., & Janiri, L. (2018). Cariprazine in bipolar depression and mania: state of the art. CNS & Neurological Disorders-Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets-CNS & Neurological Disorders), 17(10), 723-727.
Yatham, L. N., Kennedy, S. H., Parikh, S. V., Schaffer, A., Bond, D. J., Frey, B. N.,… & Berk, M. (2018). Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) and International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) 2018 guidelines for the management of patients with bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorders, 20(2), 97-170.
Zimmerman, M., Chelminski, I., Dalrymple, K., & Martin, J. (2019). Screening for bipolar disorder and finding borderline personality disorder: A replication and extension. Journal of personality disorders, 33(4), 533-543.