The Use of Motor Activity to Access Bipolar Disorder

                                 

Bipolar disorder results from brain structure and its functioning, genetics and the family history.  It has been suggested that the brains of those diagnosed with this particular disorder differs from those who are mentally healthy, and that people with certain genes have a higher risk of being diagnosed as bipolar.  It is known to run in families, but it has also been stated that majority of the people with a family history of this disorder, do not become bipolar themselves.  Bipolar disorder is a traumatic mental disorder that comes with periods of both extreme happiness and depression.  Approximately 2.6% of the United States population are diagnosed with either type 1 or type 2 bipolar disorder. Bipolar 1 is more severe and dangerous because of manic episodes, while bipolar 2 has is a milder form of mood elevations. The World Health Organization has ranked all mental disorders and placed bipolar disorder near the top of the list for the causes of mental health issues resulting in disability around the world.  So far, however, the cause of bipolar disorder has not yet been discovered, but it has been proven through scientific evidence that motor activity is the most accurate indicator of bipolar disorder.

           

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Bipolar disorder is very prevalent and it can be difficult to set a good assessment from a single analysis on a patient’s mood.  This is why newer methods are looking at easy continuous monitoring like using cellphones, which is a new development.  It helps with assessing motor activity on a continuous basis because cell phones are very common today

People who have been diagnosed as bipolar eventually learn how to live and cope with their sickness, but they are still aware of their actions and know that it is not who they were before the diagnosis.  One who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder must constantly take medication. Treatment is extremely important because if medication is not taken it can lead to irrational behavior.  The disorder must be medicated and monitored for life to ensure safety which is where motor activity comes in.

An important study by Alban Maxhuni and his co-workers begins to address the need for easily monitoring and treatment of patients with bipolar disorder by sensing their motor movements by using a cell phone.  This is significant because motor activity has to do with a person’s body movement, motor response time, level of psychomotor activity, and speech related motor activity.   These are very important and significant areas that are affected when diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

In the study group there were exactly 10 patients: 1 male and 9 females who all were bipolar.  They were picked based on their age (18-65) and if they were able to operate a smart phone or not.  The group was assessed through a state examination every three weeks for three months in Austria.  There were four scales used by the clinical psychologist.  The Hamilton Depression Scale along with the Common Depression scale were both used to determine depression within the group.  The Young Mania Rating Scale and The Mania Self-Rating Scale was used to determine the mania.  When the 10 patients were evaluated, they were rated in a scale of -3 where a – 3 was severe depression and a +3 was severe manic.  A Samsung Galaxy S2 was used as the device and it recorded audio information, number of phone calls, SMS duration, phone usage and questionnaires.  The smartphones were used as a way to classify the course of mood episodes of bipolar disorder patients based on what was found from the phone calls.  The average results were over 82%.

The study was very successful because Maxhuni was able to come up with a way to classify the course of the mood episodes from patients participating in the study.  They used the information gathered from the extraction of their smartphones.  I do not believe that there needs to be any improvement because it was a smart experiment.  Doctors will now be alerted about any possible warning signs of a relapse in their patients. 

Machine and phone monitoring as a way of indicating bipolar disorder is traditional.  I highly believe that patients will prefer this method because of its evidence from the study.  Bipolar disorder is a serious disease that should not be taken lightly because even with the right medication and treatment, mood changes can still happen.  If a person believes they, or someone they know has bipolar disorder, a proper diagnosis, as well as treatment, must be provided in order to live a normal life.  It is very important to speak with a doctor or any other mental health professional that is licensed.  Newer methods of monitoring the disease such as those proposed by Alban Maxhuni and his co-workers can make managing the symptoms easier.  We should all care for mental health issues including bipolar disorder because it affects everyone, everywhere.

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Works Cited

Maxhuni, A., Muñoz-Meléndez, A., Osmani, V., Perez, H., Mayora, O., & Morales, E. F. (2016).  Classification of bipolar disorder episodes based on analysis of voice and motor activity of patients. Pervasive and Mobile Computing, 3150-66. Retrieved from Science Direct.

(n.d.). Retrieved April 24, 2017, from

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/bipolar-      disorder/index.shtml