Question:
ok, i'm doind a report on manic depression/ bipolar disorder. i've got some
info on how to treat it..the different symptoms but nowhere has it told me any
of the causes...does anyone know an site where i can get that info or can
anyone tell me the cause(s).
Answer:
Bi-Polar Depression is a curse from the Devil or whatever anti-diety which
you believe in. Actually, there is no positive answer as to what causes it. It is accepted
that it is a genetic condition that you are born with, and then, one lucky
day, it gets triggered and you start on your never ending ride on the roller
coaster from hell. That is why it is called the "practice" of
medicine...they still don't have it right and are just guessing about most
things.there is a good synopsis of this literature of the causes in Patty Duke
Aston's book, A Brilliant Madness. it also has literature references. I am no doctor, but my understanding is that the illness is genetic and
caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. It is genetic in origin (human genome mapping project has identified it) but is
triggered by a certain mesmorizing pattern in a particular Starsky and Hutch
episode. or masturbation...or lack of sex with a hot chickee. For some, it manifested itself in spasms throughout childhood
with an increase in the teen years then became permanent with a nice
hospitalization around 25-26.
The trigger is stress. The incident is unique to that individual.
I think that our moods are regulated by a very
complex set of interlocking mechanisms. They have to be able to
respond rapidly and appropriately to emergencies, to maintain
themselves as appropriate in the absence of external stimulus, to
return to normal despite the continued long term presence of a
significant external stimulus, to vary appropraitely in a diurnal
cycle, maybe a lunar cycle, certainly a seasonal cycle, and so
on. It's probably impossible to do all this perfectly, and it's likely
that there are several different compromise solutions with a fair
balance of advantage and disadvantage, such as the pessimist, the
optimist, the enthusiast, the cyclothymic, etc.. Any system of control which tries to respond with short term
fluctuations while maintaining long term stability around a norm
requires certain component functions to be arranged in a certain way
(the set point, the measue of error, the feedback, etc.). All suffer
from an intrinsic inescapable problem which is that there is a certain
range of parameters for which they work well. Outside that range they
will cease to work properly in a variety of characteristic ways. One
of the major common modes of malfunction is oscillation between
extremes.
Because of the wide requirements on our system of mood control, there
must be many different regulatory systems involved in controlling it,
some with very fast responses, and some with very slow. If one of
these regulatory systems fails, the others will compensate to some
extent, leading to fragile imperfect control with tendencies to cyclic
mood swings with a wide variety of characteristic timings, from swings
within days to swings over years. This is what I think the varieties
of manic depression consist of. They will be distinguished by which
regulatory system has failed, which will produce characteristic
differences in mood swing timings, in responses (or lack of responses)
to different mood-altering drugs, and so on.
Now, since one of the systems of mood control involves our basic
endocrine hormones (thyroid, adrenal, etc.), which have their own
regulatory systems with strong diurnal cycles which are meant to be
entrained (synchronised) by the day/night cycle, then disorders of
endocrine control and cycle synchronisation will be bound to cause
mood regulation problems. Hence the tendency for puberty and menopause
to provoke BP episodes. Hence the tendency for jet-lag to provoke BP
problems. Hence the well known powerful effects of sleep deprivation
on mood control in BP patients.
I think a lot of the data is already out there, and simply needs to be
collected and analysed. Looks like a PhD goldmine to me, where the
right guy could start a whole new very fruitful discipline. Manic
depression is only one of the tempting seams of gold.
