When the mind is afflicted, the diseases take the form of abnormal behavioral patterns.  One very wide-spread mental disease is bipolar affective disorder.  Almost 1% of the US population suffers from these mental conditions. Statistics reveal that this disorder usually occurs between late adolescence and early adulthood.

In this kind of mental disorder, the affected person suffers from extreme forms of mood swings.  At one end of the pole is the mood of mania or excessive excitement, euphoria, elation and a super-achiever feeling.  At the other end of the pole is depression, sadness, despondency, irritation and other related feelings.  The change in behavior from one pole of mania to the other pole of depression is what is called a bipolar disorder.

The cause of bipolar affective disorder is a matter that has been researched for several years now.  Fagiolini concluded that a patient with bipolar disorder has a greater chance of having associated endocrine disorders. The patients tend to be obese and also show cardiovascular problems. Studies have established that genetics, biochemical factors, psychodynamic phases and environmental factors all influence the type of bipolar affective disorder that manifests in an individual.

Of the different types of bipolar disorders, bipolar I is mainly linked to genetic disorders.  Genetic studies prove that immediate relatives of a person afflicted by a bipolar disorder has about seven times more probability of developing this disorder than the general population.  A child has about 50% chance of inheriting the disease from a parent.  In identical twins, the chance varies from 30-90%. Studies on adopted children prove that children of afflicted parents are likely to display bipolar affective disorder in a home where the adopted parents are not afflicted.

It has been difficult to establish that one abnormality is affected by a particular biochemical because each abnormality follows multiple biochemical pathways.  Besides the neurotransmitters associated with this disorder are numerous and are based on how the afflicted person responds to psychoactive agents. Glutamate studies have shown that this chemical influences bipolar disorders.  Some practitioners conclude that bipolar affective disorder is associated with one common pathway. The psychodynamic manifestation of loss of self-esteem is seen as causing these bouts of depression. Environmental causes or triggers such as stress, seasonal changes augment the genetic or biochemical faults.

Though the causes of bipolar affective disorder have been established, it is still not yet possible to diagnose physiologically the occurrence of this disorder.  New technological research in this area has led to far reaching analysis.  The exact etiology and pathophysiology of this disorder need to be established before bipolar disorder can be diagnosed as easily as hypertension, diabetes or renal failure.