Neuropsychiatry and Bipolar Disorder
The clinical topic for this report is neuropsychiatry and bipolar disorder. Specifically the question of what clinical diagnostic tests focusing on the neuropathology systems of the brain can contribute, confirm, or exclude a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, is answered.
Importance to Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nursing
This topic is of interest to psychiatric advanced practice nursing since treatment is based on the understanding of the presence of the disorder and related effects of the disorder. The identification of possible alterations in brain structure and functioning with associated emotional and behavioral responses would contribute to an understanding of optimal methods of assisting this patient.
The literature search was conducted with Ovid, through the Miner Digital Library. Databases used to obtain articles related to the topic were Medline, CINAHL, EBM Reviews-ACP Journal Club, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effectives. In addition, Proquest was used to obtain information regarding treatment of bipolar disorder.
Key words were identified with the PICO strategy and with the use of the search engines through the digital library system at Miner Library. Key words for the literature search included neuropathology, psychoneuroendocrinology, neuroanatomical, pathways, brain, bipolar, and treatment.
Inclusion criteria were articles that identified specific brain structures or substances related to bipolar disorder, and exclusion criteria were articles that were primarily related to other disorders such as schizophrenia.
Baumann and Bogerts (2001) reviewed the literature to summarize post-mortem studies of affective disorders that showed structural and functional brain abnormalities at the neurohistological level. Findings were that basal ganglia were smaller in depressed patients and higher neuron numbers wer...