Analysis of Bipolar Type 1 Patient Story: Stigma and Intervention

This report presents a patient story focusing on a third-year medical student, Joanna, diagnosed with Bipolar Type 1 disorder. It explores the effects of stigma on her life, including social isolation and loss of faith. The report examines how social determinants of health, such as socialization and geograp...Read More

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BIPOLAR TYPE 1
Patient story
student
2019-10-06T00:00:00

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Table of Contents
Patient story.................................................................................................................................................2
Effects of stigmas....................................................................................................................................2
Effects of stigma in social determinants..................................................................................................2
Two social determinants..........................................................................................................................3
Nursing intervention................................................................................................................................3
References...................................................................................................................................................4

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Patient story
Joanna was a third-year medical student in a medical school when she developed the
symptoms like sleeplessness, panic and anxiety associated with bipolar. Previously the
psychiatrist diagnosed her with depression and prescribed some drugs. Although the
prescriptions didn’t work for her and with time her mind and thoughts raced, she experienced
delusions in her behaviour. She was brought to the hospital by her family where she was
diagnosed with bipolar type 1 disorder and prescribed with antipsychotic drugs. She was worried
about her school, developed thoughts of suicide.
Effects of stigmas
She faced stigma when people asked her that when she will be recovered, and she was
unaware of her situation. She was facing a hard time to face her friends and other people directly,
so she stopped socialising with people and spent most of her time in her room. She lost her faith
and thought like she has no life and she has to spend the rest of her life in isolation.
Effects of stigma in social determinants
The main social determinant of the health is socialization, which helps the patients to feel
that she is not alone and people are there to help them (Grande, Berk, Birmaher & Vieta, 2016).
In the case of Joanna, she isolated herself from her friends and other people as she didn’t want to
face anybody because of her mental health. Her friends were continually calling her but she
ignored all of them. This behaviour of her deteriorating her condition as nobody was able to help
her.

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Two social determinants
There are two determinants of health that affected the health of Joanna. Social
determinants of health can affect an individual both positively and negatively (Salami et al.,
2017), in the case of Joanna family and social support helped positively to recover from the
situation. In the initial days of her disease, she stopped socializing, but as her recovery process
started she removed all the barriers she made and started talking to her family and friends. Her
family was supportive both mentally and financially; they helped her to be positive. This helped
her to recover from the disorder quickly. Another determinant of health was geographical
location, the people around her also help her and didn’t see her as a mental patient. Her friends
helped her to deal with the situation and made the environment positive and healthy. With the
new doctor’s care, support from the family and friends, and medication she returned to the
normal life. She became a psychiatrist and helped many bipolar patients.
Nursing intervention
There are different studies has been conducted on the benefits of CBT in bipolar disorder.
According to Chiang et al. (2017), Cognitive behavioural therapy may be a positive intervention
for Joanna. It is commonly used with the pharmaceutical treatment and includes recognising the
maladaptive cognitions and patient behaviours that might be the obstacles to the recovery of the
patient and current mood stability. It increases medical adherences and reduces the rates of
hospitalization. The further reported that, Cognitive behavioural therapy the symptoms, severity
of mania or depression, and mental functioning associated with bipolar disorder.
Link of media source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIjNDpl2VBs

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References
Chiang, K. J., Tsai, J. C., Liu, D., Lin, C. H., Chiu, H. L., & Chou, K. R. (2017). Efficacy of
cognitive-behavioural therapy in patients with bipolar disorder: A meta-analysis of
randomized controlled trials. PloS one, 12(5), e0176849.
Grande, I., Berk, M., Birmaher, B., & Vieta, E. (2016). Bipolar disorder. The
Lancet, 387(10027), 1561-1572.
Salami, B., Yaskina, M., Hegadoren, K., Diaz, E., Meherali, S., Rammohan, A., & Ben-Shlomo,
Y. (2017). Migration and social determinants of mental health: results from the Canadian
health measures survey. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 108(4), 362-367.