Differences in Subjective Experience Between Unipolar and Bipolar Depression

Introduction It is important to make distinction between bipolar and unipolar depression because treatment and prognosis are different. Since the diagnosis of the two conditions is purely clinical, find symptomatic differences is useful. Objectives Find differences in subjective experience (first person) between unipolar and bipolar depression. Methods Phenomenological-oriented qualitative exploratory study of 12 patients (7 with bipolar depression and 5 with unipolar depression, 3 men and 9 women). We used a semi-structured interview based on Examination of Anomalous Self-Experience (EASE). Results The predominant mood in bipolar depression is emotional dampening, in unipolar is sadness. The bodily experience in bipolar is of a heavy, tired body; an element that inserts between the desires of acting and performing actions and becomes an obstacle to the movement. In unipolar is of a body that feels more comfortable with the stillness than activity, like laziness of everyday life. Cognition and the stream of consciousness: in bipolar depression, compared with unipolar, thinking is slower, as if to overcome obstacles in their course. There are more difficult to understand what is heard or read. Future perspective: in bipolar depression, hopelessness is stronger and broader than in unipolar, as if the very possibility of hope was lost. Conclusions Qualitative differences in predominant mood, bodily experience, cognition and future perspective were found between bipolar and unipolar depression. © 2015 Asociación Colombiana de Psiquiatría

• Fecha de publicación: 2016
• Institución: Universidad del Rosario
• Repositorio: Repositorio EdocUR - U. Rosario
• Idioma: eng
• OAI Identifier: oai:repository.urosario.edu.co:10336/23051
• Acceso en línea: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcp.2015.09.006; https://repository.urosario.edu.co/handle/10336/23051
• Palabra clave: Anhedonia; Article; Bipolar depression; Clinical article; Cognition; Consciousness; Emotion; Examination of anomalous self experience; Exploratory research; Fatigue; Female; Hopelessness; Human; Laziness; Major depression; Male; Mental disease assessment; Mental patient; Mood; Mood change; Movement (physiology); Personal experience; Phenomenology; Qualitative research; Sadness; Semi structured interview; Thinking impairment; Bipolar disorder; Differential diagnosis; Psychological rating scale; Psychology; Bipolar disorder; Female; Humans; Male; Psychiatric status rating scales; Qualitative research; Bipolar depression; Bipolar disorder; Ease; Phenomenology; Symptoms; Unipolar depression; differential; major; major; Depressive disorder; Depressive disorder; Diagnosis
• License: Abierto (Texto Completo)