MENTAL DISORDER AND THEIR TREATMENT

Abstract

Mood disorders include a large group of psychiatric diseases that based on the diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorders, bipolar disorder I and II and cyclothymia can be detected in this group. The prevalence of bipolar disorder I during a lifetime is about 1%, but, in general, the prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorders is significantly more (Hirschfeld, 2001). The prevalence of these disorders is 1-1.6% in the United States, and 1.5-3% around the world (Aghili, 2004). Most patients with bipolar spectrum disorders refer for treatment in a depressive episode and this reason proper diagnosis of the disease is often delayed for about ten years as it was found that given the type of disorder the average time for the treatment is about ten years (Hirschfeld, 2001). Such delays are often associated with undesirable results; patients do not receive appropriate treatment to relieve symptoms and may even receive treatments that exacerbate their symptoms so that they continue inappropriate behaviors which are destructive to themselves and their relatives (Hirschfeld, 2001).