[Severe depression : specific features of bipolar disorder]

[Differences in Subjective Experience Between Unipolar and Bipolar Depression]

INTRODUCTION

It is important to make distinction between bipolar and unipolar depression because treatment and prognosis are different. Since the diagnosis of the two conditions is purely clinical, find symptomatic differences is useful.

OBJECTIVES

Find differences in subjective experience (first person) between unipolar and bipolar depression.

METHODS

Phenomenological-oriented qualitative exploratory study of 12 patients (7 with bipolar depression and 5 with unipolar depression, 3 men and 9 women). We used a semi-structured interview based on Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE).

RESULTS

The predominant mood in bipolar depression is emotional dampening, in unipolar is sadness. The bodily experience in bipolar is of a heavy, tired body; an element that inserts between the desires of acting and performing actions and becomes an obstacle to the movement. In unipolar is of a body that feels more comfortable with the stillness than activity, like laziness of everyday life. Cognition and the stream of consciousness: in bipolar depression, compared with unipolar, thinking is slower, as if to overcome obstacles in their course. There are more difficult to understand what is heard or read. Future perspective: in bipolar depression, hopelessness is stronger and broader than in unipolar, as if the very possibility of hope was lost.

CONCLUSIONS

Qualitative differences in predominant mood, bodily experience, cognition and future perspective were found between bipolar and unipolar depression.

Factors associated with antenatal depression in pregnant Korean females: the effect of bipolarity on depressive symptoms

BACKGROUND

This cross-sectional study sought to identify factors associated with antenatal depression in pregnant Korean females, including sociodemographic parameters, social support, social conflict, and bipolarity.

METHODS

Eighty-four pregnant women were recruited to complete questionnaires on sociodemographic factors, obstetric history, depressive symptoms, and bipolarity. Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Korean version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Bipolarity was assessed using the Korean version of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire.

RESULTS

Nineteen participants (22.6%) had positive Mood Disorder Questionnaire scores, suggesting the presence of bipolarity, and were significantly more likely to score high on the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale. Antenatal depression was associated with bad marital communication and marital dissatisfaction.

CONCLUSION

These results suggest that spousal interactions play a significant role in antenatal depression, and pregnant women with bipolarity may be more depressed than those without bipolarity.