The statistics contain disappointing data: of the entire population of planet Earth, 25% of people suffer from various forms of mood disorders. Many of them do not even realize their diagnosis, therefore, do not receive appropriate treatment. This, in turn, exacerbates their situation, sometimes leading to irreversible consequences.
Mood disorders
By this name we mean mental disorders that lead to non-standard manifestations of the natural emotional background. This disease is fraught with the fact that in its symptoms it resembles other pathologies of the somatic system. This fact leads to the fact that only 25% of patients undergo appropriate treatment.
Kinds
Specialists identified the main types of mood disorders:
- Depression resulting from pathologies of the metabolic process occurring in the brain. From the consequences we can single out a hopeless state when a person feels on the verge of despair. Without proper treatment, this condition can drag on and push the patient to attempt suicide.
- Dysthymia is the mildest form of depression. Her characteristic features are: bad mood and a high level of anxiety, which is increasing daily.
- Bipolar disorder is a mood prone to manic tendencies and periods of depression. Moreover, they are constantly repeated, simply alternating with each other. When a patient plunges into a period of depression, his feelings are suppressed, and his general condition is characterized by apathy for everything that happens. At the moment of the influx of manic inclinations, the mood rises sharply, the vivacity and activity of a rested person arises from nowhere. Incredible ideas capture human consciousness. Or aggression is observed at the slightest occasion. In the scientific community, this phenomenon is called cyclothymia.
- Anxiety disorder with vivid signs of fear and a state of heightened anxiety. At such moments, patients are tuned in to troubles and troubles. Particularly impressionable personalities are constantly moving and can bring themselves to a panic state.
The diagnosis of mood disorders is difficult to establish due to the insidiousness of the disease. It can for many years disguise itself as signs of other pathologies, which makes it impossible to immediately consult a psychiatrist to exclude further consequences. There are cases when patients have been treated for years by therapists, feeding themselves useless medicines, further exacerbating the situation. If, thanks to a happy coincidence, they manage to find out the correct diagnosis and prescribe the appropriate treatment, all disturbing signs disappear in the shortest possible time, and the quality of life of the patient improves.
Signs
Common symptoms of a mood disorder:
- prolonged sad condition;
- indifference to daily affairs;
- weakness and lack of desire to do anything;
- the inability to focus on a specific task;
- poor appetite and irregular sleep;
- feeling of own uselessness;
- signs of upcoming diseases that quickly disappear without consequences;
- desire to commit suicide;
- sharp jumps in mood;
- depression worsens over and over again;
- increased aggression, irritation at the slightest occasion;
- regular hallucinations;
- obsessive thoughts that you can’t forget about;
- anxiety lasts longer than usual;
- problems with the pulse and the appearance of shortness of breath atypical for a person.
Specialists identified the main signs that most accurately identify this diagnosis - sudden changes in mood, jumps in motor activity. A potential patient interacts less and less with society, preferring loneliness. Other symptoms are manifested in thinking outside the box for this person, deterioration of the sensitive sphere, overestimation of their own actions, and so on. But they do not fully characterize the entire clinical picture and may be a symptom of another disease. The disease is associated with a mood disorder of a chronic nature. Therefore, between periodic attacks, prolonged remissions are noted without the slightest sign of any pathologies.
Affective disorders always affect the appearance and behavior of the patient, manifesting in: periodic gain in total body weight, appetite in the evenings (preference is given to carbohydrates). Premenstrual symptoms are aggravated, in the autumn-winter period, a state of sadness and melancholy regularly appears.
Treatment
The most popular treatments for mood disorders include psychological therapy and medications. Moreover, in each case, both of these methods should be used.
Among drugs, antidepressants occupy a leading place in the strength of their effects. They need to be selected for each patient. These drugs are characterized by their cumulative effect, so they begin to act some time after the start of administration. But even in the event of a significant improvement, it is advisable to continue the course of treatment further.
Causes
Specialists conducted a lot of research, but did not reveal any factors that provoke mood disorders. They can only assume that the cause of such pathologies is a malfunction in the area of the brain. For example, an unplanned release of melatonin or liberin into the blood causes sleep disturbance, loss of habitual energy level, loss of libido, and loss of appetite.
Genetic predisposition
The statistics contain disappointing data: one of the two patients has close relatives suffering from a similar disease (parents, brothers, sisters). This information is based on the assumptions of geneticists who claim that a mutation of the eleventh chromosome, which is responsible for the presence of adrenal hormones in the blood, provokes the development of mental mood disorders.
Psychosocial factor
Affective disorder does not go away on its own. It arises under the influence of external factors, presented in the form of many depressions or incredible events that affect future life. But without the help of specialists, it remains with the person, exhausting his nervous system, crippling the psyche and destroying the family, leading to loneliness and complete social exclusion.
Features of disorders at a late age
Many psychiatrists ignore elderly patients, involuntarily contributing to the further development of the pathology to a stage after which it cannot be cured.
Over the years, accumulating concomitant diseases, over and over again experiencing the death of another portion of brain cells, passing through the gradual failure of the hormonal and reproductive systems, patients suffer from severe depression. They are tormented by hallucinations, the desire for suicide, delusional thoughts and other cruel symptoms of the disease:
- Anxiety can grow to such an extent that it can easily provoke demonstrative behavior, a sense of despair, unconscious acts, numbness at the most unexpected moments, and so on.
- The patient hallucinates and torments himself with guilt, as well as the fear of punishment. Hypochondriacal delirium becomes a familiar condition, which leads to an inevitable damage to organs inside the body - decay, infection, changes in external forms, and so on.
- The patient repeats himself more and more often, his surroundings already easily understand when he will begin to plunge into an anxious state, and at what moments he will become psyched or sitting without the slightest movement.
A mood swings disorder develops in similar waves. That is, critical moments during which others are afraid for the patient’s life, are abruptly replaced by prosperous, when the patient yesterday is practically no different from a healthy person. The only thing that you can’t get rid of is insomnia and lack of appetite.
Implications for children and adolescents
Scientists have not recognized this diagnosis for a long time. But after a long observation of small patients, they were forced to state the fact that the developing psyche is prone to intermittent periods of behavior disorder. Concomitant symptoms of this pathology:
- sharp jumps in mood when crazy rage instantly turns into stable calm;
- hallucinations, mainly affecting the visual system of babies under the age of three;
- childhood disorders develop in periods - a prolonged attack that changes remission of a similar duration, or small worsening, alternating with small respites.
Psychologists recommend carefully monitoring the baby, starting from one year to 20 months. If the onset of the disorder is detected in time, it can be eliminated without any harm to the child.
Diagnosis of affective disorders in drug addiction and alcoholism
A constant companion of drug addicts and alcoholics is bipolar disorder. Often, it is complicated by regular depressions or manic seizures. In this case, the efforts of psychiatrists and the patient’s desire are not enough, and even if he takes control of his bad habit or completely abandons it, the symptoms of a mental illness will accompany him for a long time to come. In especially neglected cases - all my life.
Experts believe that at least 50% of people who abuse harmful substances have any problems with the mental sphere. The main symptoms: a sense of uselessness, longing, unwillingness to live, depression, and so on.
The patient is in a vicious circle. Wanting to abandon a bad habit, he remains face to face with even harder feelings, pushing him to take his own life. The patient attempts suicide or tries to escape from such thoughts in the only way known to him: alcoholic beverages or drugs.
Relationship of Crimes with Affective Disorders
The Criminal Code states that a person with a mood disorder can commit a crime only in the heat of passion. It is of two types:
- Physiological - instant emotional breakdown, accompanied by a failure of perception. The patient, being in this state, understands the meaning of his actions, but cannot control them.
- Pathological - a longer moment of blurred consciousness, after which the patient practically does not remember anything. But this kind of affect is so rare that it is not recognized by experts without detailed and picky research. Known information allows us to draw conclusions about the condition of such a patient: during periods of attacks he is not able to clearly speak, and the spoken words do not carry a pronounced meaning and are accompanied by violent gestures.
If at such a moment he committed a crime, the Criminal Code acquits him, recognizing him insane, and forcibly sends him to a special institution for treatment.