Short answers, pulled from the story.
Jules-Gabriel-François Baillarger described a biphasic mental illness causing recurrent oscillations between mania and melancholia to the French Imperial Académie Nationale de Médecine in 1954. This condition involves periods of depression lasting days to weeks, sometimes months, alternating with abnormally elevated moods.
Genetic factors account for up to 93% of the risk of developing bipolar disorder, indicating a strong hereditary component. Twin studies show concordance rates around 40% in identical twins compared to about 5% in fraternal twins for bipolar I disorder.
In 2022, researchers identified the AKAP11 gene as the first gene linked to bipolar disorder through analysis of exomes from around 14,000 individuals. This gene interacts with the GSK3B protein, which is a molecular target of lithium.
Most people delay seeking treatment for an average of eight years after symptoms begin, often leading to initial misdiagnosis as major depression. Estimates vary widely about how many children have bipolar disorder, ranging from 0.6% to 15%, raising suspicions of both underdiagnosis and overdiagnosis depending on the setting and method used.
The annual average suicide rate ranges from 0.4% to 1.4%, which is thirty to sixty times greater than that of the general population. An estimated 15, 20% of those with the condition die by suicide, while 30, 60% attempt it during their lifetime.