bipolar disorder

American  

noun

Psychiatry.

• bipolar disorders
  plural

1. an affective disorder characterized by periods of mania alternating with periods of depression, usually interspersed with relatively long intervals of normal mood.

---

bipolar disorder British  

noun

1. a mental health problem characterized by an alternation between extreme euphoria and deep depression

---

bipolar disorder Scientific  

1. Any of several mood disorders usually characterized by periods of depression that alternate with mania.

---

bipolar disorder Cultural  

1. Also known as manic-depressive illness. This psychiatric disorder is marked by periods of euphoric (manic) highs often followed by periods of depression.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• bipolar disorders
  plural

---

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bipolar disorder

“Paralyzed by Hope” is born out of Bamford’s bipolar disorder and her OCD, and it explores her and her family’s mental health issues in depth.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 20, 2026

She spent the next two decades taking as many as five medications at once and kept getting worse until doctors called her bipolar disorder “treatment-resistant.”

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 30, 2026

And that new evidence of bipolar disorder, PTSD, and brain damage "mostly repeated" what the jury had heard and would not have changed the verdict.

From BBC ● Sep. 26, 2026

According to the latest World Health Organization estimates, about one in 200 people worldwide, or roughly 37 million people, live with bipolar disorder.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 8, 2026

By analyzing families that possessed intergenerational histories of mental illness, the study found striking evidence that bipolar disorder and schizophrenia shared a strong genetic link.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---