Mood Disorder

Mood disorders are characterized by a serious change in mood that cause disruption to life activities. Though many different subtypes are recognized, three major states of mood disorders exist: depressive, manic(mania, Hypomania), and bipolar disorder. Manic moods are characterized by unusually high energy and mood. Feelings of euphoria are often present. These elevated moods typically last three days or more for most of the day. Classic mania symptoms include talking rapidly and/or excessively, needing significantly less sleep than normal, distractibility, poor judgment, impulsivity, and making reckless decisions. Mood disorders fall into the basic groups of elevated mood, such as mania or hypomania; depressed mood, of which the best-known and most researched is major depressive disorder (MDD) (commonly called clinical depression, unipolar depression, or major depression); and moods which cycle between mania and depression, known as bipolar disorder (BD) (formerly known as manic depression).