This is a review of the studies comparing unipolar and bipolar depression, with focus on the course, symptomatology, neurobiology, and psychosocial literatures. These are reviewed with one question in mind: does the evidence support diagnosing bipolar and unipolar depressions as the same disorder or different? The current nomenclature of bipolar and unipolar disorders has resulted in research that compares these disorders as a whole, without considering depression separately from mania within bipolar disorder. Future research should investigate two broad categories of depression and mania as separate disease processes that are highly comorbid.
Potential mechanisms to explain the relationship between Expressed Emotion (EE) and poor outcome within bipolar disorder are poorly understood. One possibility is that people with bipolar disorder have difficulty regulating their affect in response to criticism. The present study examined whether participants with bipolar disorder were more affectively dysregulated than control participants when presented with a criticism by a confederate. There was a trend for people with bipolar disorder to react more negatively to the criticism, but there was also evidence that they recovered as quickly as controls. Exploratory analyses found that female gender, the perception of the criticism as more negative, being disabled, and having fewer positive relationships predicted greater reactivity to criticism among people with bipolar disorder.
Synopsis
A growing body of research suggests that the social environment exerts a powerful influence on the course of bipolar depression. We review longitudinal research to suggest that trauma, negative life events, social support deficits, and family difficulties are common and predict a more severe course of depression when present among those diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The triggers of bipolar depression overlap with those documented for unipolar depression, suggesting that many of the treatment targets for unipolar depression may be applicable for bipolar depression.
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