Mania and hypomania are mood episodes observed in bipolar disorder, also known as manic depressive illness or bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric illness that causes fluctuations in people's emotions, energy levels, activities and thoughts. During the course of bipolar disorder, patients may experience periods of mania, hypomania and depression.
MANIA
Mania is characterized by an abnormally elevated or "flooded" mood, in which the person is extremely cheerful. or a situation in which he/she may become angry. People in mania become extremely energetic, their thoughts are rapid, their talking volume is increased, they may have unreal thoughts, and they need less sleep. It becomes difficult for people with mania to concentrate and maintain their attention, they experience an exaggerated increase in self-confidence, while their professional and social functionality deteriorates. These changes are also noticed by those around the patient. In very severe manias, delusions (believing unreal thoughts) and hallucinations (abnormal perceptions such as hearing voices or seeing images) may occur. These people's judgment may be impaired, they may have risky behaviors and make risky decisions. Treatment may require hospitalization. Mania attacks are observed in bipolar 1 disorder, which is a subtype of bipolar disorder.
HYPOMANIA
Hypomania is a milder form of mania. People experiencing hypomania may be extremely cheerful or angry, as in mania; their energy levels, speaking volume, and thought speed increase, but all these changes do not significantly impair the person's functionality. However, the changes in the person are still at a level that can be noticed by those around them. In hypomania, unreal thoughts or perceptions, called psychotic symptoms and which can occur in mania, are not observed. While hospitalization may be required in severe cases of mania, treatment of hypomanic periods is usually carried out on an outpatient basis, and the symptoms are not severe enough to require hospitalization. However, hypomania that remains untreated may also evolve into mania. Hypomania is observed in bipolar 2 disorder, which is the subtype of bipolar disorder.
DIAGNOSIS
Diagnoses of mania and hypomania are made after clinical interviews. For mania, the disease symptoms must have continued for at least a week, while for hypomania, a period of four days is sufficient for diagnosis. However, if the patient's symptoms are severe enough to require hospitalization, it is possible to diagnose mania in a shorter time.
TREATMENT
The primary aim of mania and hypomania treatments is to calm these periods with appropriate interventions, and to prevent mania, hypomania and depression attacks with preventive treatments during periods of well-being when there are no attacks. If the symptoms of mania are severe, hospitalization becomes a necessity in order to treat the disease and prevent risky or aggressive behavior. Within the scope of treatment, in addition to drug treatments, psychotherapy and, when necessary, ECT (electroconvulsive therapy), which is an effective and safe method, can also be applied. In our hospital, the follow-up of bipolar disorder patients is carried out under the management of an expert staff, diagnosis and treatment are carried out on an outpatient and inpatient basis, and psychotherapy services are provided.
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