Manic Depression And The Importance Of Medications
If you suffer from manic depression, then you know all too well that you need to take your medications as prescribed.
Manic depression, often called bipolar disorder, is characterized by extreme mood swings from euphoria to depression. There is no cure for manic depression, but it can be successfully managed with medications as well as other forms of therapy.
According to professor of psychiatry at the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Medicine, Michael E. Thase, it's just "the nature of people not to adhere to medical treatment. People with any condition [not just manic depression] are in general better at not adhering."
He notes though that mental illnesses, such as manic depression, present special challenges to keeping current with your medication. "You don't want to be mentally ill," Thase said, "and have to take annoying treatments. You want this [manic depression] to just be your personality - what is unique and idiosyncratic about your.
"This is how [manic depression] differs from heart disease or ulcers, the doctor explained, "When you have ulcers, you don't have to come to sense who you are as involving having an erosion in your stomach."
Just as a heart disease patient or ulcer patient must be careful about his lifestyle - which includes not just taking his medications, but also his choice in diet - so the person with manic depression must also pursue this same caution.
Careful use of medication is just one component of managing manic depression, the doctor noted. The individual with manic depression also needs to eat a sound and healthy diet, get regular exercise and ensure that he or she gets plenty of sleep.
If you're frustrated or your loved ones are frustrated with your ability to deal with these goals, it's not your fault. Recent research has discovered that physical changes in the brain of a person suffering from manic depression often impair the development of this insight or this self-awareness.
While frustrating for those around you, this fact needs to be kept in mind for loved ones any person suffering from manic depression - especially if you're trying to offer help. Xavier Amador, Ph.D. and author of the book "I am not Sick, I Don't Need Help," says caregivers need to realize the person with manic depression is not the obstacle in treatment adherence, "the brain dysfunction" is.
That being said, Dr. Amador advises that medications play a pivotal role in determining the optimum outcome for any individual with manic depression. "It's always been clear that consistent treatment [for manic depression] is critical in the prevention of suicide, violence and all sorts of dangerous behaviors."
"What had not been clear [in the treatment of manic depression] until quite recently," he continued, 'is the huge positive effect that early, ongoing treatment has on the lifetime course of [manic depression].
Medical experts all agree that keeping a medications regimen for a person with manic depression is a problem, but they don't all agree on how large of a problem it is.
Dr. Amador says that "most studies find that about half of the people with serious mental illness [including manic depression] don't take their medication," as prescribed.
Charles Bowden, MD, though, finds that statistic to be rather high. A professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Texas health Science Center, he places the range of non-compliance among those with manic depression between 25 and 40 percent.
Everyone agrees though that if the patient has a full understanding of manic depression, then the odds are more favorable of him taking his medications as directed.
