What is the Definition of Bipolar Disorder?
Article updated and reviewed by Christos Ballas, MD, Attenting Psychiatrist, Inpatient and Consult/Liaison Psychiatry, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania on April 11, 2005. There are two basic mood disorder categories are unipolar and bipolar. Bipolar disorder is a disorder characterized by extreme shifts in mood, energy, and functioning. About one percent of the population in any given year suffers from this disorder. Bipolar disorder (also called manic-depressive illness) is marked by periods of manic, greatly elated moods, or excited states interspersed with periods of depression. Unipolar (i.e., no mania) depression is more common than bipolar illness, though there is some controversy about the extent to which the two disorders overlap.
