bipolar disorder is a type of mood or affective disorder, which is related to the fluctuation of the mood on continuum from dysphoric [depressed] to elevated [ecstasy or elation]. depending upon the symptoms it can be diagnosed as bipolar disorder type 1 and type 2. there are other types are also there but they are not clinically very significant. 1. bipolar disorder type 1: in this illness pt has at least one manic like episode, with intermittent depressive episode may be present or absent. in mania, person has mood level on the elevated side of the spectrum and its onset is acute. duration of at least 7 days is required and if the severity is higher to such an extent that within 2 days, hospitalization is required then it is also considered as mania. symptoms in mania are like talkativeness, continuous running thoughts in mind that is called as flights of ideas, excessive involvement in pleasurable activities, decreased need for sleep, grandiose delusion, feeling of excessive energy in the body, increased psychomotor activity, along with persistently elevated or expansive mood, it may be irritable mood also. these symptoms cause impairment if social, occupational and interpersonal functioning. these disorder is not continuous it fluctuates over times, pt may have repeated manic episodes only or there may be some depressive episodes. 2. bipolar type 2: here, depression is more prominent and mania has never occured. instead of mania, there is hypomania. which is milder form of mania which does not provide impairment, grandiose delusions, but surrounding people can understand that there is a abnormal behavior present. here patient has prominent depressive episodes with intermittent hypomanic symptoms.. actually bipolar disorder is mostly related to mood. it lies between excessive sad feeling of suicide to excessive high n enjoyable feeling of excessive energy. in mania of high severity with graandiose delusions person can harm oneself and others.. aanother important feature is hypersexuality and hyperreligiosity depending on the cultures..