Living With Bipolar Disorder In Kay Redfield Jamison's An Il

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Living With Bipolar Disorder Bipolar Disorder, or Manic-depression as it used to be referred to, affects those that have it in very different ways. Therefore it is important to treat patients, and their disease, as individualized rather than lumping them together by the standards of textbook care. Kay Redfield Jamison is a professor of psychiatry and psychiatric disorders at John Hopkins School of Medicine. She was also diagnosed with bipolar disorder, in which people exhibit polarized behaviors ( wild swings in emotion), in the 70’s. In her memoir An Unquiet Mind, she shares some of her own experiences dealing with this disease, and she teaches that it is impossible to live a balanced life without medication and therapy if you are suffering…show more content…
The essential difference between dysthymic disorder (usually experienced by individuals with Bipolar Disorder) and major depressive disorder is the intensity and duration of symptoms. Dysthymia is defined as chronic depression. In dysthymic disorder, the presence of a depressed mood for approximately two years (with no more than two months of wellness) is required for diagnosis; in major depressive disorder, the diagnosis is based upon the presence of symptoms nearly every day for two…show more content…
They are used to treat manic, hypo manic and mixed episodes and are also used as long term, or maintenance treatment to prevent relapses and delay further mood episodes. Some mood-stabilizers may take a week or two to reach a therapeutic blood level and then they may take a few more weeks to take effect. In acute situations, another drug may be needed while the mood-stabilizer starts to take effect. The most commonly used mood stabilizer is lithium. This is the oldest and most widely used treatment and is usually the first drug to be prescribed with a diagnoses of bipolar disorder. Common side effects include : lethargy, diarrhea, nausea, frequent urination, tremor and weight gain. Jamison states that the side effects she experienced for ten years after starting Lithium were hard to deal with (Jamison 93). She was unable to read due to decreased attention span and comprehension. However she was still able to read poetry (Jamison 95). The blood level of lithium must be monitored regularly because the therapeutic blood level is quite close to the toxic level, in fact Jamison had several instances of toxic level and was even pulled over on suspicion of DUI (Jamison 94). Once a stable blood level has been established, blood tests can be done every 4-6months (Phelps

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