Bipolar Disorder
HCA/240
December 7th, 2014
Bruce Gould
Deanndra Johnson

History shows that evidence exist that this mental disorder existed as far back as second century A. D. in ancient Turkey. Aretaeus a physician of Cappodociam talked about individuals who experienced depressive and manic episodes at the same time. It took another 1000 years before there was more documentation concerning this disorder. This was found in the writings of a British author named Richard Burton. He expanded on the symptoms seen in individuals in his book, which he named, Anatomy of Melancholia. Modern day depression used to be called melancholia and is what Mr. Burton was referring to when he discussed the signs and symptoms of depression in 1650.His finding are still used in research today. He is also known as the father of depression. Later in the 1850’s two French doctors expanded bipolar disorder. They worked independently. Their names were Jean Falret and Jules Baillarger. These two doctors created the first hypothesis and distinguished between circular insanity, which they called folie circulaire,and dual insanity, which they called folie a double forme. This was how they described the difference between full-blown mania without depression and just simple depression alone. In the 1850’s this disorder was described as insanity. In today’s world we do not use the word insanity inside medical terminology to describe this mental disorder. There are claims that the two doctor’s work led to the term bipolar disorder. There are some claims that Dr. Jules Farlet coined the term manic depressive psychosis and labeled it as a psychiatric disorder. 25 more yearspassed and a German psychiatrist presented the concept of manic-depressive insanity. He received a great deal of criticism and it took almost 20 years going into the 1930’s for the medical community to completely accept Dr. Krapelin’s studies and research. Through the1950’s and 1960’s The Journal of Nervous and Mental disorders produced a publication that stated manic-depression runs in families and that there is a genetic link between all individuals that are diagnosed with both mood disorders and mental illnesses. The study of genetics, gene expressions, age of onset diagnosis of mental illness and bipolar disorder, common symptoms throughout patients that had bipolar disorder, gender, and age were all being very deeply researched to make positive distinctions between the two conditions. In the mid 1960’s researchers demonstrated that there were differences between bipolar disorders and unipolar depression. Acceptance was gradually beginning to merge that there were different bipolardisorders. In 1979, after a long battle with congress, The National Association of Mental Health was founded. This took place due to the need for further research in mood disorders and menta lillness so that they could be understood. The American Psychiatry Association replaced the termmanic depressive disorder with bipolar disorder. This is how the disorder appears in the third edition of the DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). The DSM V is expected to be published and released in 2013. Centuries ago mental illness was viewed as insanity and there were no treatments available (The History of Bipolar From Centuries Ago Until Present Day, http://www.bipolardisorderliving.com). Bipolar disorder is a longitudinal defined by multiple episodes that may occur yearsapart. As a result the proper diagnosis requires careful evaluation of both the current symptoms and the patient’s history. The majority of patients with bipolar disorder initially present during an episode of depression, which can be difficult to distinguish from major depressive disorder if there has not been a known manic or mixed episode in the past ( Roy-Byme P, Post RM, UhdeTW, et al.) Bipolar I comes two know sides of the disease possessing recurring episodes of maniaand depression. There