The statistics contain disappointing data: out of the entire population of the planet Earth, 25% of people suffer from various forms of mood disorders. Many of them are not even aware of their diagnosis, so they do not receive appropriate treatment. This, in turn, aggravates their situation, sometimes leading to irreversible consequences.
Affective mood disorders
Under this name they mean mental disorders that lead to non-standard manifestations of a 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 receive appropriate treatment.
Views
Specialists have identified the main types of mood disorders:
- Depression resulting from pathologies of the metabolic process occurring in the brain area. Of the consequences, a hopeless state can be distinguished, when a person feels on the verge of despair. Without a suitabletreatment, such a condition can drag on and push the patient to attempt suicide.
- Dysthymia is the mildest form of depression. Her characteristic features are: a bad mood and a high level of anxiety, which increases daily.
- Bipolar disorder is a mood prone to manic tendencies and periods of depression. And they are constantly repeated, just alternating with each other. When the patient plunges into a period of depression, his feelings are suppressed, and the general state is characterized by apathy to everything that happens. At the time of the influx of manic inclinations, the mood rises sharply, out of nowhere there is vivacity and activity of a rested person. Incredible ideas capture the human mind. Or there is aggression for the slightest reason. In the scientific community, this phenomenon is called cyclothymia.
- Anxiety disorder, which has strong signs of fear and a state of increased anxiety. At such moments, patients are tuned in to trouble and trouble. Particularly impressionable individuals are constantly moving and can bring themselves to a state of panic.
Diagnosis of mood disorders is difficult to establish due to the insidiousness of the disease. It can be disguised as signs of other pathologies for many years, which makes it impossible to urgently contact a psychiatrist to rule out further consequences. There are cases when patients were treated by therapists for years, stuffing themselves with useless drugs, further aggravating the situation. If, thanks to a happy coincidence, they manage to find out the correct diagnosis and prescribe the appropriate treatment, inall disturbing signs disappear in the shortest possible time, the patient's quality of life improves.
Signs
Common mood disorder symptoms:
- prolonged sad state;
- indifference to daily affairs;
- weakness and lack of desire to do anything;
- 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;
- mood swings;
- depression gets worse over and over again;
- increased aggression, irritation at the slightest provocation;
- regular hallucinations;
- obsessive thoughts that you can't forget;
- 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 mood changes, jumps in physical activity. The potential patient interacts with society less and less, preferring loneliness. Other symptoms are manifested in non-standard thinking for this person, deterioration of the sensitive sphere, reassessment of one's 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, betweenperiodic attacks mark long-term remissions without the slightest sign of any pathologies.
Affective disorders are always reflected in the appearance and behavior of the patient, manifesting itself in: a periodic set of total body weight, an appetite in the evenings (preference is given to carbohydrates). Premenstrual symptoms are aggravated, in the autumn-winter period, a state of sadness and longing regularly appears.
Treatment
The most popular treatments for mood disorders include psychological therapy and medications. Moreover, in each specific case, both of these methods should be used.
Among medicines, antidepressants occupy the leading place in terms of their effect. They need to be selected for each patient. These drugs are characterized by their cumulative effect, so they begin to act after some time after the start of administration. But even in the case of a significant improvement, it is desirable to continue the course of treatment.
Reasons
Specialists have done a lot of research, but have not identified any factors that provoke mood disorders. They can only assume that the cause of such pathologies is a malfunction in the brain area. For example, an unplanned release of melatonin or liberin into the blood causes sleep disturbance, loss of the usual level of energy, the disappearance of libido, and a decrease in appetite.
Genetic predisposition
Statistics contain disappointing data: one out of two patients hasclose relatives suffering from a similar disease (parents, brothers, sisters). This information is based on the assumptions of geneticists who claim that the 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
Mood disorder doesn't 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 later life. But without the help of specialists, it remains with a person, exhausting his nervous system, crippling his psyche and destroying his family, leading to loneliness and complete social alienation.
Features of disorders in later life
Many psychiatrists overlook elderly patients, unwittingly contributing to the further development of the pathology to such a stage, after which it cannot be cured.
For years, accumulating concomitant diseases, over and over again experiencing the death of another portion of brain cells, going through a gradual failure of the hormonal and reproductive systems, patients suffer from severe depression. They are tormented by hallucinations, suicidal desires, delusional thoughts and other severe symptoms of the disease:
- Anxiety can grow to such an extent that it can easily provoke demonstrative behavior, feelings of despair, unconscious actions, numbness at the most unexpected moments, and so on.
- The patient hallucinates and torments himself with guilt,as well as fear of punishment. Hypochondriacal delirium becomes a habitual condition, which leads to inevitable damage to the organs inside the body - rotting, infection, change in external forms, and so on.
- The patient is increasingly repeating himself, his environment already easily understands when he will begin to sink into an anxious state, and at what moments he will become psychotic or sit without the slightest movement.
Mood swing disorder develops in similar waves. That is, critical moments, during which others are afraid for the patient's life, are abruptly replaced by favorable ones, when yesterday's patient practically does not differ from a he althy person. The only thing you can't get rid of is insomnia and lack of appetite.
Impact on children and adolescents
Scientists did not recognize 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 subject to intermittent periods of conduct disorder. Associated symptoms of this pathology:
- sharp mood swings, when insane rage instantly turns into stable calm;
- hallucinations, mainly affecting the visual system of babies under the age of three;
- Children's disorders develop in periods - a long attack followed by a remission of a similar duration, or slight deterioration alternating with small respite.
Psychologists recommendclosely monitor the baby, ranging from one year to 20 months. If an incipient disorder is detected in time, it can be eliminated without any harm to the child.
Diagnosis of affective disorders in drug and alcohol addiction
The constant companion of drug addicts and alcoholics is bipolar disorder. Often it is complicated by regular depression or manic seizures. In this case, the efforts of psychiatrists and the desire of the patient are not enough, and even if he takes control of his bad habit or completely abandons it, the symptoms of mental illness will accompany him for a long time. In especially advanced cases - for life.
Specialists believe that at least 50% of people who abuse harmful substances have some kind of mental he alth problem. The main signs: a feeling of uselessness, longing, unwillingness to live, a depressed state, and so on.
The patient is in a vicious circle. Wanting to give up a bad habit, he is left alone with even more difficult feelings, pushing him to take his own life. The patient attempts suicide or tries to get away from such thoughts in the only way known to him: alcoholic beverages or drugs.
Association of crimes with affective disorders
The Criminal Code states that a person with a mood disorder can commit a crime only in a state of passion. It comes in 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 remembers almost nothing. But this type of affect is so rare that it is not recognized by experts without detailed and captious research. Known information allows us to draw conclusions about the condition of such a patient: during periods of attacks, he is not able to speak clearly, 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 justifies him, recognizing him as insane, and forcibly sends him to a special institution for treatment.
