Bipolar Disorder: A Concise Overview of Etiology, Epidemiology Diagnosis and Management: Review of Literatures

unipolar disorder by including manic states. No matter how many times a patient is depressed; only one manic/hypomanic episode is required to diagnose bipolar rather than unipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is further characterized as type I or type II. Type I is diagnosed when at least one manic episode is identified. Usually recurrent depression also occurs, but in 5 to 10 percent of cases there are no diagnosable major depressive episodes, although almost always there will be minor depressive episodes. Bipolar disorder type II requires the absence of even one manic episode, and instead the occurrence of at least one hypomanic episode and at least one major depressive episode. The critical difference between mania and hypomania, in current DSM-V nosology, is that mania requires significant social and occupational dysfunction, while in hypomania significant social and occupational dysfunction needs to be excluded. Durational criteria are less strict for hypomania (a minimum of 4 days) than for mania (a minimum of 1 week) [1].