Mood Disorders

Mood disorders is the situation whereby the current emotional mood is distorted or inappropriate to the circumstances.

At least 6 percent of adults have mood disorders, and 90 percent of patients with mood disorders complain of troubled sleep.

Types Of Mood Disorders

Depression (or unipolar depression) and bipolar disorder are the two major types of mood disorders.

Depression:

Depression is a mood disorder that is characterized by unhappiness, or "having the blues." People with depression can have many types of sleep problems.

The symptoms of depression include the following:

• Lack of energy
• Feeling hopeless or worthless
• An increase or decrease in the need for sleep
• Loss of interest from things that were once pleasurable
• Feeling extremely gloomy, anxious, irritable, or "empty"
• Difficulty concentrating, thinking, or making decisions
• Changes in desire for food that lead to changes in weight
• Thoughts of death or suicide, or attempting suicide.

Depression Treatment

Depression treatment depends on the seriousness of the illness. Psychotherapy, medicines, or a combination of these two are used to treat major depressive disorder.

Combination of psychotherapy and medicine is the most efficient treatment for depression. Medicine tends to work more quickly to decrease symptoms, while psychotherapy helps people to learn coping strategies to prevent the onset of future depressive symptoms.

Anti-depressant medicines to treat depression include serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), Zoloft, Prozac, Tricyclic antidepressants (Pamelor and Elavil), Sedating antidepressants (Trazodone).

Hypnotics are another class of medicines for people who cannot sleep. These drugs include Ambien, Sonata, and Restoril.

Bipolar disorder:

Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness characterized by regular episodes of depression, mania, and/or mixed symptom states.  These events cause unusual and extreme shifts in mood, energy, and behavior that interfere significantly with normal, healthy functioning.

 Manic symptoms include:

• Distractibility — attention moves continuously from one thing to the next
• Increased energy
• Increased talking
• Decreased need for sleep — ability to go with very little or no sleep for days without tiredness
• Disregard of risk — extensive involvement in risky behaviors or activities
• Severe changes in mood — either extremely irritable or overly silly and elated
• Overly-inflated self-esteem; grandiosity
• Hyper sexuality — increased sexual thoughts, feelings, or behaviors; use of explicit sexual language

Depressive symptoms include:

• Difficulty sleeping or oversleeping
• Loss of energy
• Loss of interest in activities once enjoyed
• Recurrent thoughts of death or suicide

How is bipolar disorder treated?

Once the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is completed, the treatment of children and adolescents is based mainly on experience with adults.

The two most important types of medication used to manage the symptoms of bipolar disorder are Mood stabilizers and antidepressants. Physicians may also prescribe other medications to help with insomnia, anxiety, restlessness, or psychotic symptoms.

To improve symptoms during hyper, episodes; they may sometimes also reduce symptoms of depression more stabilizers are used. The mood stabilizers which are widely used in the United States are Carbamazepine (Tegretol), Valproate (most commonly used as divalproex), Lithium (Eskalith, Lithobid, Lithonate, and other brands).