Definition of "bipolar disorder" []

• A psychiatric disorder marked by alternating episodes of mania and depression. Also called bipolar illness, manic-depressive illness. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The DSMs break bipolar disorder down into categories: bipolar type 1, bipolar type 2, and bipolar NOS Not Otherwise Specified."
• "According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill NAMI, current genomic research may be leading to the discovery of even more types of bipolar disorder than we know about today."
• "Worldwide case reports from the Archive of General Psychiatry record children on lithium for bipolar disorder as early as 1978."