Introduction
Unipolar mania is an unrecognised mental illness characterised by episodes of mania and normal mood, with the absence of depressive symptoms.
Refer to Bipolar Disorder.
Background
The concept has its origins as far back as the year 1889, when the German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin first used the term of “periodic mania” to refer to people with recurrent manic episodes and no depression. One year later, Carl Wernicke proposed that mania and depression should be viewed as separate disorders. As the time went on, unipolar mania became an invalid diagnosis due to its variations across different patients. Currently patients with symptoms of mania, even in the absence of any depressive symptoms, would get the bipolar 1 diagnosis.
Symptoms
Symptoms of unipolar mania are similar to those of bipolar mania. They can include:
- Elevated self-esteem or grandiosity.
- Increased motivation or psychomotor agitation.
- Decreased need for sleep.
- Unusually talkative.
- Difficulty maintaining attention.
- Racing thoughts.
- Excessive involvement in activities with a high likelihood of painful consequences.(e.g. extravagant shopping, improbable commercial schemes, hypersexuality).
The episode generally have a stronger tendency to present with psychosis or/and need psychiatric assistance.
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