Mania vs. Hypomania

People with manic or hypomanic feelings can expect their mental health professionals to consider several medical interventions in the form of medications, psychotherapies, and lifestyle advice to address symptoms -- relieving already existing symptoms and preventing symptoms from returning. Mood stabilizers and antipsychotic medications are thought to be particularly effective in treating mania or hypomania, in that these groups of medications can be useful in treating active (acute) symptoms of manic or mixed episodes, as well as preventing the return of such symptoms. Despite its stigmatized history, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) can be a viable treatment for people whose mania is severe and has inadequately responded to psychotherapies and a number of drug trials.

The prognosis for mania or hypomania is such that individuals tend to have episodes of some sort of mood problem up to 60% of the time. However, the episodes can often be well managed by the combination of psychotherapy and medication treatment. There are a number of potential complications of these mood problems, particularly if left untreated.

Complications of mania or hypomania can include substance use disorders, thinking (cognitive) problems, and generally more medical problems. The risk of committing suicide is 60 times higher for people who have had mania or hypomania compared to the general population.

While far more seems to be known about the prevention of symptoms of mania or hypomania once symptoms have occurred at least once, there is emerging research that when family focused therapy is provided to children who have more subtle symptoms prior to having a manic episode and who have relatives who have suffered from a similar mood episode, they may be less likely to develop full-blown bipolar disorder as adults.

REFERENCES:

American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Treatment Revision. Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc., 2013.

Laursen, T.M., T. Munk-Olsen, M. Nordentoft, and B. Mortensen. "A comparison of selected risk factors for unipolar depressive disorder, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia from a Danish population-based cohort." The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 68.11 Nov. 2007: 1673-1681.