What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?

What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder?

Christopher Reist (Academic Psychiatrist, Co-Author of “Psychiatry”) gives expert video advice on: What's the difference between "major depression" and "bipolar disorder"?; Is there anything I can do to avoid developing bipolar disorder? and more...

In bipolar disorder, typical symptoms of mania (one of the mood episodes in bipolar disorder) include grandiosity, or a feeling of greatly inflated self esteem and power. People will also have increased rate of speech, which we call pressured speech. There is often irritability and impulsiveness. Patients that are manic typically have a preoccupation with pleasurable activities, so it's not unusual to see people going to Vegas to engage in gambling, and you can often see increased sexual activity. Other symptoms include decreased sleep; patients can go for days without sleep. As the episode worsens they have impaired judgment, and typically will have run-ins with the law due to their behaviour. They also exhibit something we call flight of ideas, in which their ideas are very loosely connected, sometimes to the point where it's difficult to follow their train of thought.