Understanding Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a common psychiatric disorder with chronic mania/ psychotic symptoms and distress. In BPD, complete etiology and pathogenesis are unknown, like most other psychiatric disorders. Modern research has suggested a combination of an impaired blood-cerebrospinal fluid (BCF) or blood-brain barrier and patient subgroups of numerous psychiatric conditions, including autism, anxiety, and other affective disorders. Recent progress in the fields of nosology, epidemiology and molecular genetics, in particular, have begun to unravel some of the complexity of this disorder, as there are likely to be considerable changes in the way the broad spectrum of bipolar disorders is diagnosed and managed over the next few years.