Bipolar disorder (BD), formerly manic depression, is a mental health condition characterized by extreme mood swings that include emotional highs (mania or hypomania) and lows (depression). People with bipolar disorder also feel depressed, and hopeless and lose interest in most activities. It is important to note that BD is among the poorly understood neuropsychiatric disorders and one with the highest risk of disablement. The neurobiology of this condition is complicated, and much remains to be discovered regarding its neural and genetic correlates. It is thought that Bipolar disorder is a result of many distinct etiologies. Most of the patients with BD demonstrate a subtle reduction in cortical gray matter volume within several specific regions, such as the right anterior cingulate, the right precentral gyrus, and the inferior frontal gyrus bilaterally. Neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder

Neurobiology of Bipolar Disorder; An MRI scan of people with BD shows an elevated volume of white matter hyperintensities and bright spots appearing within the white matter in T2-weighted images. Other studies suggest that the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), there are alterations in several key neuro regulators in BD. For instance, glutamate and glutamine concentrations are increased in the frontal cortex among patients with BD compared with controls. Moreover, BD has long been known to have a strong genetic component. However, BD is unlikely to be caused by one or even just a few genetic mutations. There are studies that posit that the development of BD is under considerable genetic control, so monozygotic twins have a higher concordance rate of 38.5%–43% for BD than dizygotic twins at 4.5%–5.6%. Adopted children whose biological parents have BD are at a higher relative risk of developing the disorder.

The main difference between bipolar I and bipolar II disorder is in the intensity of mood extremes. Bipolar I is characterized by full-fledged manic episodes, and the duration for it is seven days, where the symptoms are visible most of the day throughout the period. MLA