How Manic Depression Became Bipolar Disorder

How Manic Depression Became Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder Symptoms Mania and Hypomania Print Why Did Manic Depression Become Bipolar Disorder? The History and Reasons Behind the Change By Marcia Purse Marcia Purse is a mental health writer and bipolar disorder advocate who brings strong research skills and personal experiences to her writing. Learn about our editorial policy Marcia Purse Medically reviewed by Medically reviewed by Steven Gans, MD on August 05, 2016 Steven Gans, MD is board-certified in psychiatry and is an active supervisor, teacher, and mentor at Massachusetts General Hospital. Learn about our Medical Review Board Steven Gans, MD Updated on January 17, 2020 Bipolar Disorder Overview Symptoms & Diagnosis Causes Treatment Living With In Children Your Rights RapidEye/Getty Images The phrase manic depression has its origins rooted in ancient Greece, where the term was used as early as the first century to describe symptoms of mental illness.?? In her book Bipolar Expeditions: Mania and Depression in American Culture, author Emily Martin writes, The Greeks believed that mental derangement could involve imbalance among the humors, as when melancholy, heated by the fluxes of the blood, became its opposite, mania. What Does Manic Depression Mean? In the late 1800s, Jean-Pierre Falret, a French psychiatrist, identified folie circulaire, or circular insanity, manic and melancholic episodes that were separated by periods that were free of symptoms. It is through his work that the term manic-depressive psychosis became the name of this psychiatric disorder. Its noteworthy that psychosis was included, thus excluding all types of what we know as bipolar disorder that do not include psychotic features.?? In 1902, Emil Kraepelin organized and classified what used to be thought of as unitary psychosis into two categories. Manic-depression was the term he used to describe mental illnesses centered in emotional or mood problems. Dementia praecox, literally meaning premature madness, and later renamed schizophrenia, was his title for mental illnesses derived from thought or cognitive problems.?? In the early 1950s, Karl Leonhard introduced the term bipolar to differentiate unipolar depression (major  depressive disorder) from bipolar depression. In 1980, with the publication of the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), the term manic depression was officially changed in the classification system to bipolar disorder.?? The Types of Bipolar Episodes Why Bipolar Disorder Instead of Manic Depression? In the last few decades, the medical profession, and psychiatry specifically, has made a concerted effort to shift the vernacular to the official DSM diagnostic term of bipolar disorder. There are a number of reasons cited for this shift, including: Manic depression has generally been used to denote a wide array of mental illnesses, and as classification systems have become more sophisticated, the new term of bipolar disorder allows for more clarity in diagnosis.??The terms manic and mania have been greatly stigmatized. Consider popular phrases such as Manic Monday, Animaniacs, homicidal maniac, and the like. Similarly, the term depression is used flippantly by the general public for periods of sadness that dont really qualify as clinical depression.Bipolar disorder is more of a clinical term and therefore, less emotionally loaded.Manic depression emphasizes the predominant emotional symptoms  but seems to exclude the physical and/or cognitive symptoms also present.The term manic depression excludes the cyclothymic or hypomanic (bipolar II disorder) versions of the disorder.?? Types of Bipolar Disorder There are three types of bipolar disorder recognized in DSM-5.?? They include: Bipolar I disorder: For this type to be diagnosed, you must have manic or mixed episodes lasting at least a week or manic symptoms that were severe enough that you needed to be hospitalized. Depressive episodes are often present too.Bipolar II disorder:  Hypomanic, or depressive episodes happen in this type, but not manic episodesCyclothymic disorder or cyclothymia: This type is a milder kind of bipolar and is diagnosed when youve had both hypomanic and milder depressive episodes for at least two years. The Different Classifications of Bipolar Disorder