Cyclothymia: Mood Disorder

Cyclothymia in medical terms is defined as a Bipolar Mood Disorder leading to mixed and multiple mood swings of extreme kinds. The word cyclothymia is taken from the Greek language which means 'Mind'. This chronic disorder is an acute combination of hypomania and dysthymic. Patients suffering from this disorder undergo a symptomatic change for at-least two years and remain in both bipolar disorder states for not less than two months at a time before they come to the normal state. Way back in the 1980 this disorder was considered as a personality disorder but later the name was changed to 'Mood Disorder'.

Some of the common symptoms with the bipolar states are:

Hypomania: is the first polar state which is characterized by a lot of recurrent irritable mood, lack of sleep and patients developing extremely daring and outgoing capabilities. In this state of mind the patients overdo on all fronts with big ego states, aggression all over and all the time, extremely high rate of speech with poorly developed judgment capabilities, high sexual desire and portray very risky behaviors all the time.

Dysthymic: the other polar state is considered to be just the opposite of hypomania and falls under the depression zone and can lead to long term illness. Patients suffering form this disorder find it extremely difficult to take decisions,they indulge a lot into self criticism, remain demotivated, loose appetite for food, develop a low urge for sex and the last stage that they can enter into are the suicidal modes or tendencies.

In stages where the hypothermia disorder in a patient goes to the peak to meet requirements of Mania episodes, the disorder would change to Bipolar I disorder. If the dysthymic disorder becomes acute and falls under Major depression zone then the disorder gets converted to Bipolar II disorder. This disorder has an equal chance of occurrence in both male and female & the chances of the population being affected by this are between .4 to 1%. Most of the times it has been observed that this stress has its roots imbibed in childhood problems that children face. When the mind is young and fertile and is faced with situations where the child is thrown in extreme conditions and their is no synchronization between the mind and the heart's decision.

Treatment Of Cyclothymia :

- Psychotherapy : Educating the patient as well as his family about the disorder, the symptoms, and treatment methods adds a lot to the improvement of this disorder.
  Helping the patients maintain their social, personal & work-balance also are a part of it.
- Anti depression pills and mood stabilizer: are given to the patients as a normal course of medicine to neutralize as well as stabilize mood swings.
   But in most cases it is not a preferred therapy as it can take the person into a Mania state which at any time is not very desirable.
- Anti-epileptics medicines : to help the patient from any sort of epileptic attack.
- Stoppage of all kinds of liquor and drugs permanently.
- All medication used for Bipolar I treatment is also replicated for Cyclothymia