People generally don't like it, whether it's insulin for diabetes or antihypertensive drugs or lithium for bipolar disorder, but they do it when persuaded that a relapse or worsening of a serious condition can be prevented. They feel encouraged and vindicated when nothing terrible happens. People who go off antihypertensives can have years of apparent good health before the day of reckoning arrives with the onset of heart failure or a sudden stroke. Let's take a look at what we know about bipolar disorder. It's a condition that usually starts in early adulthood, consists of episodes of depression and mania in varying combinations.
Episodes are recurrent.
It's estimated that patients not on preventive treatment will experience an average of nine to ten episodes in their lifetime. Episodes last an average of one and a half to four months, though some people are ill for years at a time. Although psychological stress is prominent in early episodes, later ones tend to have a life of their own, less linked to stress. Episodes tend to get more frequent with age. Current thinking favors the notion that episodes actually cause changes in the brain that prepare the way for later episodes and progressive intensity of illness.