how far are we from a rigorous definition and effective management?
Bipolar disorder is a pathological disturbance of mood, characterized by waxing and waning manic, depressive and, sometimes distinctly mixed states. A diagnosis of bipolar disorder can only be made with certainty when the manic syndrome declares itself. Most individuals who are diagnosed with this disorder will experience both poles of the illness recurrently, but depressive episodes are the commonest cause of morbidity and, indeed, of death by suicide. Twin, adoption and epidemiological studies suggest a strongly genetic aetiology. It is a genetically and phenotypically complex disorder. Thus, the genes contributing are likely to be numerous and of small effect. Individuals with bipolar disorder also display deficits on a range of neuropsychological tasks in both the acute and euthymic phases of illness and correlations between number of affective episodes experienced and task performance are commonly reported. Current self-report and observer-rated scales are optimized for unipolar d
