neuropsychiatric disease pathway bipolar disorder pathway As categorized by the DSM-IV, bipolar disorder is a form of mood disorder characterized by a variation of mood between a phase of manic or hypomanic elation, hyperactivity and hyper imagination, and a depressive phase of inhibition, slowness to conceive ideas and move, and anxiety or sadness. Together these form what is commonly known as manic depression. Manic depression, with its two principal sub-types, bipolar disorder and major depression, was first clinically described near the end of the 19th century by psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, who published his account of the disease in his Textbook of Psychiatry. DSM-IV is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, is the handbook used most often in diagnosing mental disorders in the United States and other countries. PW:0000242 pathway