The Complex Organ We Call The Brain

The brain is a mysterious part of our bodies, and we have yet to explore all its depths. It is made up of complex networks of billions of neurons, which control all the mechanisms and functions within the body. Because we do not completely understand the brain’s entirety, it makes it hard to learn about neurological diseases and even harder to diagnosis them.  Recently, these disorders have become major points of focus for researchers and they have been able to shed some light on what is going on in the brain. These new understandings have allowed for treatments and therapeutic options to be discovered for many neurological diseases. Bipolar Disorder is one disease that has become an interest to many and in the last decade researchers have been trying to explain what is going wrong in people with the disorder. The disease is characterized with manic and depressive mental states. However, a person with Bipolar Disorder can have varying amounts of these states and activities during them.  During the manic phase, the individual can experience high self-esteem, risk-taking behavior, and excessive energy, making sleep negligible. On the contrary, the depressive state consists of changes in appetite, sleep, interests, and suicidal thoughts and/or actions.  These states are in constant fluctuation, making it hard for a person to live a normal life. Individuals are normally diagnosed in their early twenties, but can have symptoms years before an actual diagnosis.
For many years, not much was known about Bipolar Disorder or the medications that help to treat it.  Recent studies have suggested that it is a complex disease, with many contributing factors. These factors include over activation of glutamate receptors, also known as excitotoxicity, oxidative stress, and inflammation of the brain. Many of these symptoms are also common in other neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, and traumatic brain injury. In Bipolar Disorder, when the brain becomes inflamed it activates a cytokine pathway, which is a cell signaling molecule usually involved in the immune response. In Bipolar Disorder it is not exactly known what activates these pathways. However, these pathways have been shown to increase the number of oxidative species in the brain; we normally refer to these as free radicals.  These radicals further damage the cell’s ability to effectively perform, eventually leading to cell death. Not much is known about why the brain in these victims becomes inflamed, but this inflammation is also seen in concussions, and may be the result of an injury to the brain causing these effects.
With many other disorders having similar characteristics, it makes it hard to diagnosis Bipolar Disorder. The argument has become whether or not these diseases are over or under diagnosed. Because so little is known about disorders affecting the brain, many times people do not know what is going wrong until years after the initial symptoms first started. At that point, much of the damage that has occurred is irreversible. Many factors can contribute to delayed diagnosis, such as the age at which people are diagnosed, ruling out other diseases, and substance abuse. For the most part, the age at which people are diagnosed is a time when many things are going on in these individuals’ lives. They are most likely graduating high school, going to college, getting jobs, and some are starting families. The stress of these life events can make it seem like nothing is wrong and that the manic and depressive episodes are simply the person trying to deal with the fast pace of life. Also, years before diagnoses, many individuals are in there teens, trying to find their individuality, going through puberty, and so forth. These episodes can then seem like the average rebellious teenager and it is not until years later, after a diagnosis, that these people begin to see what was influencing their behaviors years ago.  People diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder also many times abuse drugs and/or alcohol. This can make it hard for anyone around them, as well as themselves, to be able to understand what is going on with their mental state. They are already not thinking clearly and have thrown in another factor, such as these substances, making everything much more complex.  All of these factors go on to further complicate the already complex neurological disease.
After looking at all these factors, we still have much more to learn about the brain. The brain is so intricate, making problems within the brain just as complicated. Until we can better understand the depths of the brain, there is no saying how well we are diagnosing and treating these disorders. Once we are able to reach these depths in understanding, there is no telling the numerous amount of treatments, maybe even cures, that could be possible for neurological diseases like Bipolar Disorder.
References:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763410001545#sthash.ATLQszpz.dpuf