Bipolar Symptoms, Disorder Cause, Diagnosis, Treatment

Bipolar Statistics
Written by Jim Korn   
Do you know who is affected by Bipolar disorder? In American adults there are around 5.7 million that are affected, which comes out to be about 2.6% of the population in the United States. This is just the people that are 18 and older. A study was done by the National Institute of Mental Health to come up with these numbers. There are Bipolar kids and older people that are affected by this illness also.

Most people will start to see symptoms of Bipolar when they are around 25 years of age. However, there have been people who developed the Bipolar disorder in their early childhoods or some will develop it when they are as old as 40 or 50 years of age. It doesn’t matter what your age, race, ethnic group or social class because men and women can develop Bipolar.

According to the study done by the National Institute of Mental Health, more than two thirds of people who are living with Bipolar disorder will have a history of Bipolar disorder in their family, which will usually be at least one close relative that has this illness or that has unipolar major depression.

According to the Bipolar disorder statistics there are three times as many women than men that experience rapid cycling Bipolar. Other studies show that women tend to have more depressive episodes and more mixed episodes than men do.

Did you know that the Bipolar disorder is the sixth leading cause of disability in the whole world? This study was done by the World Health Organization. Also according to studies, when it comes to suicides and Bipolar disorder there are as many as one in five people that have this illness who will commit suicide. According to the Bipolar statistics there is 9.2 year reduction of your life span. This study was conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health.

When it comes to children with Bipolar disorder and adolescents that have it, they will usually have one parent that has the disorder. This isn’t always the case so you want to still watch for any symptoms of Bipolar in your children just in case. Children who have parents with this illness will have a risk of 15% to 30%. If both of the parents have it then the risk will be increased to 50% to 75%.

The Bipolar disease is more common in youth as it is in adults. Adolescents that are of the age of 14 to 18 were found to have had criteria for this disorder or for cyclothymia at some time in their life. The study found that this was true in one percent of youth. According to statistics there is 20% of youth that deal with major depression that will get Bipolar within a five year time frame from the start of the depression. There are 3.4 million children and adolescents who have depression in the U.S. can experience early development of the Bipolar disorder.

When Bipolar kids are having a manic episode they will be more likely to experience moods where they are irritable and they will often have outbursts that you are destructive. They can then change moods in the blink of an eye and be elated or euphoric. If they get depressed they can even start having physical problems that will cause them to complain about having a headache, stomachache or being overly tired. They can also experience poor performance when at school, social isolation and sometimes they will even be extremely sensitive to rejection of any type or failure.

It is imperative that you learn all you can about the Bipolar illness, especially if your kid has it too. Getting help and finding the right Bipolar disorder treatment is very important because if you let this illness go untreated you will soon find the symptoms will get worse.

 
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