Mania and hypomania
Mania occurs when there is abnormally high or elated mood, together with increased energy levels that develop over a few days. These symptoms can be unpredictable and causes a disruption to day-to-day activities. Hypomania is a term used when the symptoms presented are not as severe or extreme as mania.
Other symptoms of mania or hypomania include:
- Inflated self-esteem and exaggerated sense of well-being
- Decreased need for sleep
- Being more talkative than usual or feeling pressure to keep talking
- Racing thoughts
- Distractibility
- Irritability
- Increased goal directed activities (for example, being full of ideas or new plans)
- Poor decision-making that may lead to potentially painful consequences (for example, spending excessively, being less inhibited about sexual behaviour, and making rash decisions, often at the spur of the moment)
Some patients may also exhibit psychotic symptoms, whereby they lose touch with reality. For example they may hear voices that are not real (hallucinations), or develop false beliefs (delusions).
Major depressive episode
Depressive symptoms, on the other hand, manifest as follows:
- Feeling sad, empty or tearful
- Loss of interest and having no pleasure in almost all activities
- Significant changes in appetite and weight (for example, weight gain or weight loss)
- Alterations in sleep (either insomnia or sleeping too much)
- Fatigue
- Loss of concentration or inability to make decisions
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt
- Thoughts of suicide
