Edited and reviewed by: Trine Vik Lagerberg, Oslo University Hospital, Norway
This article was submitted to Mood Disorders, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry
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Bipolar disorder (BD) is often regarded as an acute condition, mainly characterized by the presence of episodes of hypomania and mania. However, it is now increasingly clear that this condition: (1) tends to be chronic, with most patients that spend a substantial proportion of time with depressive or manic symptoms; (2) is often resistant, or partially resistant, to treatment; and (3) is often burdened by subthreshold symptoms that persist between one acute episode and another.
Furthermore, there is growing evidence that the prevalence of bipolar disorder can go well beyond the 1–2% prevalence that is usually attributed to this disease. Reasons for this underestimation include difficulties in making an early diagnosis and difficulty in making a differential diagnosis from disease such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, etc. In this collection of articles, some of the topics mentioned above are addressed, including:
The differences in the seasonal variations of symptoms, between patients with bipolar disorder and patients with major depressive disorder (
Findings from a neuroimaging study on peculiar characteristics in some areas of the cerebral cortex of patients with bipolar disorder (
The evaluation of the clinical characteristics of dissociative symptoms and of their impact on the clinical course of the disease, including. the response to treatment (
The differences between patients with bipolar disorder and patients with major depressive disorder in the brain white matter structure (
The clinical and neurobiological trajectories of children and adolescents with bipolar disorders and high-risk unaffected offspring (
I am grateful to the Authors who contributed to this research topic and hope that the readers will appreciate and find their contribution useful for their clinical practice and research on this topic.
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