Abnormal Psy/ Bipolar Pres. Flashcards
Matthew struggles with being consistent with his medication because he doesn’t like the many side effects, and also because he greatly enjoys his manic episodes when they occur. His feels he is the most creatively productive during his manic episodes.
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The Precipitating factors that have lead up to Matthews current difficulties are many. He was diagnosed with pediatric bipolar disorder and so has been obviously struggling with managing his illness beginning in childhood.
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From childhood Matthew has shown to be especially sensitive to seasonal pattern shifts, in which his sleep cycles are easily disturbed. If Matthew’s circadian rhythm cycle is not functioning properly, this was likely a precipitating and predisposing factor in his development of bipolar disorder.
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Matthew has had disciplinary issues at school pretty consistently since childhood. He has relatively few close friends, and therefore reports a lack of social support.
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Matthew has an incredible passion for his art, and is the only form of education he has wanted to focus on since childhood. His high levels achievement in this area were unfortunately not recognized by his parents, they are very unsupportive of his desire to immerse himself into the art world. His art teacher is the only one who was ever been supportive and encouraging in his creativity.
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Matthew scores high on the trait neuroticism, illustrating his low tolerance to stress. He is extremely pessimistic and lacks confidence in his academic skills. This may help to explain why Matthew seems to struggle with his education.
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The Predisposing factors that contributed to Matthews bipolar development unfortunately consist of many contributory influences
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First, genetics plays a substantial role in the development of bipolar disorder, especially with bipolar 1 disorder as opposed to unipolar disorder.
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Studies reveal that 8-10 percent of first degree relatives of a person with bipolar 1 disorder can expect to have bipolar disorder. This genetic component also increases the risk of first degree relatives developing unipolar major depression.
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Evidence for these conclusions come from twin studies in which concordance rates were about 60 percent for monozygotic or identical twins and about 12 percent for dizygotic or fraternal twins.
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These results are far-reaching not only for Matthew but for all of those those who have a first degree relative with bipolar disorder. These heritability estimates are the highest of any of the major adult psychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia.
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It is also likely that Matthew has anatomical abnormalities. Several studies suggest that those with bipolar disorder show deficits to activity in the prefrontal cortex, which affect the abilities of problem solving, planning, working memory, and shifting attention on cognitive tasks
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This is likely the reason Matthew has struggled even from childhood in regards to his academic performance.
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Matthew’s parents were divorced when he was young and this was a major cause of stress for him. In fact this may have initiated Matthews first manifestation of systems eventually lead to his pediatric bipolar disorder diagnosis
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Studies reveal, that although it it not necessary for a manic or depressive episode to be precipitated by a stressful event, stress may destabilize critical biological rhythms and this may perhaps make one more susceptible and vulnerable.
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