Bipolar disorder epidemiology

Psychological disorders have gained increasing acceptance over the last several decades. This acceptance has been very important for the recognition and classification of mental disorders which has been extremely useful in diagnosing the conditions correctly. However for scientific reasons it helps to know what the prevalence, cause and spread of any given mental condition is, so that research can be directed at finding better treatments and understanding the causes in detail.

This basically comprises the epidemiology of any condition. One such condition for which the epidemiology has been studied in detail is bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder epidemiology provides details on the prevalence of bipolar disorder in both children and older aged adults, as wells as tentative causes and treatments for the same condition.

A large number of bipolar disorder epidemiological studies have been carried out around the world. All these studies have established that the lifetime prevalence of bipolar disorder is around 1%, and a lifetime manic episode to be about 2. Other bipolar disorder epidemiological studies reveal that including sub-threshold levels of diagnostic criteria, about 6.4% of the population could be considered as having a bipolar spectrum disorder. However as with any data collected, there are concerns about the possibility for both underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis.

Bipolar disorder epidemiology suggests that the occurrence of bipolar disorder is the same regardless of being male or female and is similar even amongst people of different races. Bipolar disorder epidemiology also includes the age of onset for the condition which is generally between late adolescence and early adulthood. Also, the condition is first manifested in the form of a depressive episode before a manic episode. However recent studies have shown that the onset of bipolar disorder can also be in childhood, a condition which is now being recognised as Childhood Bipolar Disorder.

When discussing bipolar disorder epidemiology, it is important to remember that there are two distinct forms of bipolar disorder, which differ in their epidemiology. One is the classic form, known as Bipolar Disorder I, characterised by manic and depressive episodes. The other form is Bipolar Disoder II which has symptoms of major depressive episodes as well as hypomania (a less severe version of mania). Bipolar disorder epidemiology suggests that Bipolar Disorder I is common amongst both men and women while Bipolar Disorder II appears to be more common in women. Also women see to be more prone to depressive episodes than men.