Heredity Plays Important In Bipolar Disorder
A recent study revealed that in 90 percent of bipolar disorder cases, it is the family history which can be held responsible. Most of these patients have relatives who have suffered from some form of depression.
Evidently, your psychiatrist needs to know your family history to make a proper diagnosis. Till about a decade or two back, the term bipolar disorder was never used and the only terms used then, were depression or manic depression.
Anyways here are a few things that your psychiatrist must be made aware of so that he can understand your family’s medical history and can trace the root cause of your problem.
•   any of your relatives who has committed or attempted suicide.
•   any relatives who have been diagnosed with depression.
•   any relatives who suffer from any kind of social phobias, like if a person is scared to step outside his house, who gets agitated or nervous for no major reasons, or those who are often struck by panic attacks.
•   any relatives diagnosed as psychotic.
•   any relatives who hallucinate.
•   relatives who have been hospitalized because of psychiatric problems.
•   relatives who exhibit extremes of aggressive, violent and temperamental behavior.
•   relatives who have addictions, and we are talking not just about drug or alcohol addictions, but even about gambling, extreme shopping and hurting or oppressing others.
Now if even for any one of your relatives, especially those who are in your first blood, any of the above condition holds true, then your odds of suffering from bipolar disorder are much higher. And it becomes extremely important for you to let your doctor know about these relatives and their psychiatric problems, so that he can make a better diagnosis of your problem.
Its also important to let the psychiatrist know about your relationship with that relative, because if the relation is close like the suffering relative is your father, sister, mother or brother then your risk of suffering from bipolar disorder rise as high as 30 to 50 %, while if the relationship is distant then the risk factor is only about 10 – 15%.
