Major Depression & Bipolar Disorders

Course overview

Mood disorders (major depression, bipolar I, and bipolar II) afflict nearly 35% of Americans at some point in their lives. Therefore, it is important to know the signs and symptoms of these disorders in order to help your patients, family members, and friends obtain effective treatment for these psychological conditions. Mood disorders often go undiagnosed for years or decades due to the misunderstanding of major depression and bipolar disorders¿ symptoms. Individuals with major depression typically present as irritable, grumpy, and angry with low frustration tolerance, fatigue, and a very apathetic view of their social, vocational, and interpersonal lives. Many of these people go undiagnosed because their depression is often considered a personality style rather than a treatable psychological condition. This course offers mental health and healthcare professionals¿ information so they can identify major depression in their patients and help convince them to seek out help. Similarly, individuals with bipolar II disorder may spend years before being appropriately diagnosed and treated. These people often experience hypomanic episodes for many years before a bipolar depression is manifested. If the individual¿s hypomanic disorder presents as socially accepted symptoms (i.e., decreased need for sleep, talkative, and increased work or school activity) the patient is viewed by others as a hardworking and very productive individual, rather than a patient in need of treatment. Unfortunately, these patients often have intrapersonal hypomanic symptoms such as racing thoughts, psychomotor agitation, and/or distractibility which they keep to themselves due to fear of being labeled mentally ill. This course provides healthcare workers with important information to identify mood disorders in their patients so that these professionals may refer them to mental health providers. As for mental health clinicians, the course provides a refresher of mood disorders diagnostic criteria, as well as psychological and medical treatment strategies for major depression and bipolar disorders. The course also discusses the most recent etiologic models for mood disorders, such as the Behavioral Approach System Dysregulation and Circadian/Social Rhythm theories. Finally, genetic information is reviewed in terms of how environmental and social factors affect mood disorder genes to produce major depression and/or bipolar disorders.