Rapid Cycling Bipolar Disorder

The term "ultra-rapid cycling" may be applied to those who cycle through episodes within a month or less. If this pattern occurs within a 24-hour period, the person's diagnosis could possibly be termed "ultra-ultra-rapid cycling" or "ultradian."

Expansive mood: Lack of restraint in expressing one's feelings & thoughts, frequently with an overvaluation of one's significance or importance. Irritable easily annoyed and provoked

Circumstantiality: Pattern of speech that is indirect and delayed in reaching its goal because of excessive or irrelevant detail or parenthetical remarks. The speaker does not lose the point, as is characteristic of loosening of associations, and clauses remain logically connected, but to the listener it seems that the end will never be reached

Distractibility the shifting from one area or topic to another with minimal provocation, and/or attention being drawn too frequently or easily to unimportant or irrelevant external stimuli and expanding & embellishing in great detail.

Elaboration: An unconscious process consisting of expansion and embellishment of detail, especially with reference to a symbol or representation in a dream.

Flight of ideas: A nearly continuous flow of accelerated speech with abrupt changes from topic to topic that are usually based on understandable associations, distracting stimuli, or plays on words. When severe, speech may be disorganized and incoherent.

Pressured speech: increased in amount, faster than usual, virtually nonstop and difficult or impossible to interrupt. seemingly driven. Usually it is also loud and emphatic. The apparent digressions more abundant and noticeable.

Psychomotor agitation: Excessive motor activity that accompanies and is associated with a feeling of inner tension. The activity is usually nonproductive and repetitious and consists of such behavior as pacing, fidgeting, wringing of the hands, pulling of clothes, and inability to sit still

"continuous" cycling, which means that you never have a normal mood period: you cycle directly from one mood state into another with no normal mood. But again, the mood episodes may be long, short, mixed, with added features of panic, anxiety, etc. I guess the worst is ultra-rapid cycling and ultra-ultra-rapid or ultradian cycling, with many episodes in a day which just go on and on

results suggest that, in the large majority of cases, rapid cycling does not persist more than several years beyond its onset, though it is associated with an increased level of long-term morbidity

It has been suggested that antidepressants trigger and prolong rapid cycling, and cycle lengths have been observed to increase after antidepressant treatment was withdrawn. Because the identification of rapid cycling requires a thorough analysis of episodes for at least a year, a description of its natural course requires a lengthy observation period, as well as follow-up regardless of whether the patients remain in treatment. No prior study is known to have described the course of rapid cycling beyond five years

patients who showed a rapid-cycling pattern were significantly more likely to have had an illness onset before 17 years of age

In four of five cases, rapid cycling ended within two years of its onset

Rapid cycling may seem to make bipolar disorder more obvious, but because most people with rapid cycling bipolar disorder spend far more time depressed than manic or hypomanic, they are often misdiagnosed with "just" depression Also, people often don't take note of their own hypomanic symptoms, mistaking them for a period of unusually good mood