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Rapid Cycling Bipolar:
Rapid Cycling Bipolar is a manifestation of the Bipolar Disorder, a mental illness in which the individual experiences two extreme poles of behavior, depression and hypo/mania. A person suffering from Bipolar Disorder usually displays varying degrees of moods, depression to hypomania and again to depression, though the degree of severity of depression and hypomania may differ every time.
Bipolar Disorder may be caused due to the presence of cases of mental sickness in the family or the occurrence of a drastic life event. Rapid Cycling Bipolar refers to the incidence of four or more episodes of depression and hypomania within a year. If four or more episodes occur within a month, the condition is known as an ultra-rapid cycle and if the frequency of the episodes is rapid and several of them occur within weeks, it is known as ultra ultra rapid cycle.
The individual experiences phases of normal behavior when depression and mania are absent. However, there may be different versions of Rapid Cycling Bipolar that have to be taken into account to fully understand the meaning of the term. The individual may sometimes move from one pole to another, let’s say from depression to mania without an intervening normal phase. This is an extreme form of Rapid Cycling Bipolar and is known as a ‘switch’. A patient may have two switches in a year or one switch and two episodes separated by a phase of normal behavior.
The episodes and their incidence may therefore occur in many different combinations and patterns because of different causes but are included under the broad term of Rapid Cycling Bipolar. Many people now feel that the term is not useful to describe specific patterns of the episodes and the use of the term for describing all the different patterns often obscures the difference between them. The different patterns of the episodes of depression and mania have different treatments and therefore should be distinguished by different names.
To sum up, Rapid Cycling Bipolar may be broadly defined as a condition when the individual experiences four or more episodes of depression and mania, notwithstanding the different combinations and patterns in which they may occur. It is estimated that more than half of the patients suffering from Bipolar Disorder experience Cycling Bipolar at the onset of the mental illness.
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Paul Mackie |
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