Bipolar disorder
mental illness characterized by mood changes
Bipolar disorder (BD), previously known as manic depression, is a mental disorder characterized by periods of depression and abnormally elevated mood, lasting days to weeks, and in some cases months. If the elevated mood is severe or associated with psychosis, it is called mania; if it does not significantly affect functioning, it is called hypomania. During mania, an individual behaves or feels abnormally energetic, happy, or irritable, and often makes impulsive and reckless decisions. There is usually sleep disturbance during manic phases. During periods of depression, the individual may experience crying, have a negative outlook, and demonstrate poor eye contact. People with BD are at 11.7 times greater risk of dying by suicide than the general population. Approximately 34% attempt suicide during their lifetime. Among adolescents with BD, 78% engaged in self-harm.
The mechanisms of this mood disorder are not clearly understood, although some studies suggest areas for future clinical research. Structural and functional MRI studies have shown differences in brain regions in BD, such as regions involved in perceiving risk-reward and regulating emotions.
“Bipolar disorder” enters the record as mental illness characterized by mood changes. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Bipolar, disorder and mental can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131755. The Library of Congress control number is sh85080541. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
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This entry incorporates text from “Bipolar disorder” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.