THE '22 TIMES

Mood disorders are a category of illnesses that describe a serious change in mood. Though many different subtypes are recognized, three major states of mood disorders exist: depressive, manic, and bipolar. Bipolar disorder previously referred to as manic depression is a multifactorial illness with uncertain aetiology. It is a mental health condition that causes extreme mood swings that include emotional highs like depression and mania. The cycling between both depressed and manic moods is what characterises bipolar mood disorder. Epidemiology Epidemiological studies have suggested a lifetime prevalence of around 1% for bipolar type I in the general population. A large cross-sectional survey of 11 countries found the overall lifetime prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorders was 2.4%, with a prevalence of 0.6% for bipolar type I and 0.4% for bipolar type II. There are several types of bipolar and related disorders including cyclothymic disorder but the two types of bipo...

Feeling sad or anxious at certain times is a normal part of life. However when these feelings persist for more than two weeks, disrupting an individual’s relationships and daily routine, they could be considered as symptoms of depression (Pietrangelo et al., 2017). According to the World Health Organisation, about 300 million people around the world have depression (WHO, 2018). It is also estimated that 15% of the adult population will experience depression at some point in their life (Morin, 2019). These statistics therefore make depression one of the most common problems faced by populations worldwide. There are a lot of negative effects that depression has on the health of individuals. Research has documented many of these deleterious effects and this article will highlight a few of them. One major long term effect of depression is suicide. In the US, suicide is ranked as the 10th leading cause of death and the second cause of death among people ages 15-24 (Morin, 2019)....