Profile of Research Community 1
Faiza Raza
Bipolar disorder
Bipolar disorder is a disease of mood disorder which is also known as manic depressive
disorder or bipolar affective disorder. It is clinically referred as manic-depression. People with
bipolar disorder go through strange mood changes; sometimes people with bipolar disorder feel
very happy and much active than usual. This unusual mood is called mania. Sometime people
with bipolar disorder feel very sad and much less active in other words depressed. Sometimes
People with Bipolar disorder go through mania and depression at the same time. People who
suffer with bipolar disorder usually experience social stigma, stereotypes, and prejudice towards
other persons.
The first symptom of mania and depression were found in Aretaeus of Cappadocia in
Turkey but it was unnoticeable until 1650. After that Scientist Richard Burton wrote a book on
depression. In 1854, Jules Falret noticed a connection between depression and suicide attitude
and then his research led to the discovery of bipolar disorder. In 1875 he found the term ManicDepressive psychosis, a psychiatric disorder. His later observations on bipolar disorder in
families led to the discovery that bipolar disorder can pass on genetically. In 1980 the term
manic-depressive disorder was replaced by bipolar disorder.
There is a lot of research about depression and other depression related diseases. These
researches help define different types of depression like bipolar, which is a unique form of
depression. Important issues in latest discussions among scientists are that can bipolar disorder
pass on genetically and through social behavior? Another important issue that how can we
improve our behavior to treat bipolar disorder. Journal from Clinical Psychology is mainly
focusing on social effects on children’s and adult’s behavior differently. Children and adult
perceive social cues differently. Researcher approached at bipolar disorder through neuroscience
their studies and they are focusing on correlation of social cues and neurons. The journal from
An International Journal of Psychiatry and Neurosciences is trying to make a noise about how
neurobiology and genetics is a part of the bipolar disorder. The researchers are explaining
correlation between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, and so far they have found some
differences in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have
similar brain region which are affected and they are medicated differently. Another journal from
Abnormal Psychology is talking about behavioral approach to bipolar disorder. In 1999, ReillyHarrington, Alloy, Fresco, and Whitehouse reported that in the bipolar spectrum, the processing
of negative acknowledgement, dysfunctional manners and negative self-referent information
brings a negative increase in depressive and hypo manic symptoms within the bipolar spectrum.
Bipolar disorder has unique profile of cognitive style. All these journals are basically focusing on
the factor of socio emotional, neurobiological and cognitive style on person’s mind which
develops bipolar disorder.
Profile of Research Community 2
Bipolar disorder is found in 20th century and researchers were presenting their ideas to
solve issues related to Bipolar Disorder. The first international bipolar disorder conference was
held in 1994 at University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvanian. In that conferences the participants
discussed main issues about Bipolar disorder like what are the symptoms? And how can we treat
them?
Society for the Study of Social Problems also organized a meeting which held in 2001.
This conference was about physical disabilities in college students, which are found in many
college going students. They concluded that colleges should provide services and treatment to
those students who face issues like discrimination and social problems. In this meeting,
participants also gave the idea of discussions outside of the class rooms so that those students are
able to discuss their problems without any hesitation and also that faculty should provide help to
those students in productive way. Again Society for the Study of Social Problems conducted
another conference about mental illness like bipolar disorder in clients from urban and rural
areas. Those researches and conferences allow the researchers and scientists to discuss about new
issues and topics of discussions so that they can present their own researches of those issues and
also solution of the issues.
The funding agencies are playing very important role in research institutes; their funds
allow institutes to buy latest technology and equipments. The Stanley Medical Research Institute
(SMRI) has been supporting a research for bipolar disorder since 1989. SMRI is also working on
other four areas with other funding agencies like NIMH, NARSAD, and the British Medical
Research Council. SMRI supports neuropathology by giving funds up to 75,000 per year and it
provides brain tissue samples for depression research. The American Psychiatric Association
(APA) is also kind enough to provide funds for these kinds of researches. It provides grants for
young psychiatrics within five years. There are two grants for new psychiatrics especially on
bipolar disorder. Other three grants are also available for psychiatrics to research on Bipolar
disorder and schizophrenia. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) are federal funding agencies which are nonprofit
organizations and they are helping in research for neuron disorder system. Neuron disorder
system is the system which leads other behavioral disorders and other kind of diseases such as
Alzheimer’s, learning disability, and bipolar disorder etc.
Bipolar disorder is a popular topic on the internet and there are many forums available to
discuss about bipolar disorder for example TOPIX. People are discussing different topics related
to the Bipolar Disorder and also posting their stories on the said forum. The main topic was how
people’s relationships get affected by Bipolar disorder. Another forum is The Health Board.
People on this forum are discussing what the symptoms are and how their counselor and
therapists help them. Also other information like health issues and news related to all
psychological issues are under discussion.
Profile of Research Community 3
Depression is considered a disease and bipolar disorder is the branch of depression.
Research shows it is a serious kind of depression which is found in most of the people. Abnormal
social behavior or mal functioning of neurons can cause Bipolar Disorder. The psychiatrists and
researchers often provide behavioral and neuron related information which is very helpful to
treat that disorder.
Citation
Primary Publications
Journal of Clinical Psychology
Journal of An International Journal of Psychiatry and Neurosciences
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Major Conferences
Society for the Study of Social Problems
Funding Agencies
The Stanley Medical Research Institute
The American Psychiatric Association
The National Institutes of Health
Forums
TOPIX
The Health Board