As Bipolar Disorder is a biological illness that often has a genetic component, treatment is usually long-term.

Treatment for Bipolar Disorder often includes a combination of medications to manage the symptoms plus psychological therapies to help in dealing with the illness and living a full and meaningful life.

As everyone is different, management for Bipolar Disorder can vary widely. Professional help is needed to maximise the likelihood of long-term success. Treatments for Bipolar Disorder are evolving rapidly and now tend to be very successful.

The management of Bipolar Disorder usually has three parts:

1. Treating the current episode of mania or depression
2. Preventing the recurrence of mania and depression
3. Managing the recovery

As Bipolar Disorder has two distinct conditions to treat, mania and depression, treatment usually involves more than one medication.

As a biological condition with genetic elements, long-term treatment is usually necessary to prevent relapses of mania or depression. Without treatment including medication and psychological counseling, relapse is likely.

Medications

The term "mood stabiliser" is used to describe medications that are effective in both acute and maintenance phases of therapy.

Here are some of the more common groups of medications used in Bipolar Disorder:

• Lithium
• Antiepileptic drugs
• Conventional antipsychotics
• Newer antipyschotics
• Antidepressants
• Anti-anxiety medications

Psychological Therapies

Psychological therapies such as counselling, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Interpersonal Therapy have clearly shown results that are greater than when the person receives medication alone.

• Counselling: Counselling is aimed at helping with problem solving - solving any long term problems in the family or at work. This encompasses a broad range of approaches and goals. Crisis Counselling involves solving sudden major problems.
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): aims to show people how thinking affects their mood and to teach them to think in a positive way about life and themselves. CBT is conducted by trained therapists and is likely to include a series of sessions as well as homework between sessions.
• Interpersonal therapy: the goal of interpersonal therapy is to understand how social factors (such as work, relationships and social roles) are operating in a person's life situation. The therapy will generally involve 12-16 sessions with a trained counsellor.

Non-medicine approaches to managing Bipolar Disorder

• Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) is used to treat severe mania and severe depression - usually in situations where medication can't be taken, such as due to side-effects, pregnancy, or where a person may resist medication but be a danger to themselves (e.g. starving, dehydrated, chronically abusing substances, banging head on wall, etc.). There has been some negative press about the use of ECT, however this is a safe and painless procedure which can be life-saving for severe depression. It is now administered to very specific areas of the brain so that side effects are limited or of very short duration.
• Complementary Medicines (not prescribed)
  Herbal remedies and other natural supplements have not been well studied and their effects on Bipolar Disorder are not fully understood.
  Omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oil) are currently being studied to find out if they may be useful for long-term treatment of Bipolar Disorder.
  St John's Wort (hypericum perforatum) is being studied for possible use treating depression. However there is evidence that it can reduce the effectiveness of some medications and can react with some prescribed antidepressants, plus it may cause a mood swing into mania.
• Hospitalisation
  In some circumstances, there maybe a role for hospital care to ensure that people receive the most appropriate treatment. A short hospital stay of days or weeks may help in an emergency.

Did you know?

Treating Bipolar Disorder can be complex - both initially and in the long term. To prevent relapse, treatment usually needs to continue for long periods of time - for many months or years. Frequent discussion with medical professionals is recommended.

For more information on maintaining the management of Bipolar Disorder please go to early signs of relapse.

For general information to help people with mental illness improve physical wellness go to: www.mindbodylife.com.au