Bipolar Psychological Model Most Appropriate

Bipolar

Psychological model most appropriate for interpreting bipolarity

Ultimately, the biological model of understanding the human psyche is most appropriate to interpreting Susie's bipolarity. True, the patient's background of sexual repression within her immediate family environment and the past stress of dealing with mental illness in her extended family could be alleviated with long-term psychological counseling. But to render Susie receptive to such therapeutic treatment, and to enable her to continue to function in her daily life in a more normal fashion as a student, she requires medication and medical treatment.

Why model is appropriate

Bipolarity responds well to some forms of medical intervention, although no psychotropic medication is a panacea. But Susie will not be able to respond to conventional talk therapy unless she is able to get her moods under control, and to find a more rational way to approach other people. Also, she is currently under extreme stress as a college student, living away from home. She is subject to the pressures of exams, regulating her own time, food, and sleep schedule, and coping with the social and sexual pressures endemic to college life. Restoring her to some immediate state of homeostasis is important. "Psychosocial treatment for bipolar illness is not an alternative to medication. it's a supplement," noted one therapist involved in a study of the need for therapy in bipolar sufferers (Balkalar, 2007).

What does the future hold for this disorder?

Bipolar disorder is being diagnosed in younger and younger people. An early diagnosis can give an advantage to researchers and clinicians in curtailing the effects of the disorder over the course of the individual's life. Bipolar disorder is usually treated with Lithium, or it has been in the past, but managing the upward and downward swings of a sufferer's mood can be difficult. Often psychopharmacology offers different solutions for treating the manic and depressive stages of the ailment. Both younger and older sufferers today are treated with a cocktail of drugs. As well as Lithium as a mood stabilizer, other antipsychotic drugs like Risperdal or Seroquel, both developed to treat schizophrenia, are often prescribed to treat the delusional features of the manic phase of the ailment. Other patients are prescribed additional mood stabilizers, such as Depakote, which was developed to treat epilepsy. Antidepressants and stimulants are also less commonly used to treat the ailment's depressive features, depending on how the disease manifests itself in the patient (Carey 2007). They would not, however, be appropriate for Susie at this point in time.

Risperdal, a relatively new medication has become popular to treat both bipolarity and psychosis, but the search remains for a drug that lacks some of the debilitating side effects such as the weight gain associated with anti-schizophrenic drugs and Lithium and the tics and emotional flattening associated with anti-psychotic drugs. In particular, the anti-psychotic drug Zyprexa is now contraindicated, given the threats it poses to takers, in terms of diabetes and heart disease. Sixteen percent of people taking Zyprexa for a year gained more than sixty-six pounds, according to documents obtained for a potential class action suit against the drug's manufacturer (Berenson 2007). The drugs used to treat depression are of limited use in treating the repeating depressive episodes of bipolar illness, both in terms of long-term efficacy and their danger in causing the bipolar sufferer to enter a manic episode, not merely recover from depression (Balkalar, 2007). Abilify, a new drug, has demonstrated less significant weight gain, although it can still produce tics, "headache, anxiety, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, constipation, dizziness, upset stomach, and an inner sense of restlessness or need to move" ("Commonly Asked Questions About Side Effects," 2007, Abilify: Bristol-Meyers Squib Official Website).

Susie's future

Finding the right drug for Susie may take time, and her drug treatment plan will likely take a series of adjustments over the course of her lifetime, to stabilize her moods, and will depend upon her life circumstances and the course of her illness. Does this biological paradigm mean Susie cannot benefit from psychodynamic therapy or another form of talk therapy? Not at all. Susie has suffered the difficult struggle of coping with a troubled background, and the impediments that bipolarity causes to social and personal fulfillment can benefit from therapy, particularly therapy that stresses setting goals and achieving concrete steps forward, as well as achieving a positive self-image.