In Bipolar II Disorder there are episodes of depression and hypomania, usually defined as rapid mood cycling. There are no hallucinating or psychotic episodes with this disorder. Hypomania is a milder form of mania, where there are periods of elation or they experience a sense of heightened happiness. With Bipolar II, patients have depression which is more harsher than in Bipolar so they may have thoughts of suicide, or come out with suicide threats or even attempt suicide. Suicidal thoughts occur more in patients with Bipolar II than in Bipolar I.
A patient is usually diagnosed as having Bipolor II after they had one or more long depressive episode, with usually one episode of hypomania, but no manic or mixed episodes; and also When the symptoms have no other cause.
When a patient has Depression, the symptoms and characteristics include a decrease in energy levels, despair, more irritability than usual, uncontrollable crying, and weight loss or gain. The symptoms and characteristics of Hypomania include a distractibility, excess energy, racing thoughts, rash judgements and sleeplessness. A person has a tendency to behave untoward like going on spending sprees or reckless spending, or engaging inappropriate behaviour. You will note that the symptoms compared to mania are similar, although less severe.
To treat Bipolar II Disorder after a diagnosis has been confirmed, is firstly with prescribed medication with the possibility of therapy or counselling. Sometimes a patient may need psychiatric care in a hospital so that they can be assessed with a treatment plan to follow. Medications include antidepressants like Celexa, and also mood stabilisers like Topomax, for example. Mood stabilisers are frequently prescribed to help alleviate the symptoms that come with mood swings, the primary one being mania, as antidepressants on their own can cause manic or hypomania episodes.
Many people with this disorder are misdiagnosed as having clinical depression, as depression is often the symptom that is seen as present, and a hypomania episode may not come to light until later. Once treated with antidepressants a patient will spiral out of control and have an episode of hypomania. It is only then that a diagnosis of Bipolar II Disorder is usually found, and the treatment can then be changed to the correct one.