It is possible that Bipolar Disorder has been with us from the beginning of humankind, however historians have traced the first mention of Bipolar Disorder back to ancient Greece. It was the ancient Greeks who first recorded that melancholia, the old term for depression and mania were two distinct and opposite moods found in certain people. They were the first to recognize that these moods were extreme and not just the regular lows and highs that the regular population was sure to experience during their lifetime. They were the first to associate this condition with a mental illness.
The researchers took up interest again with this mood disorder and started doing research into the disease in the 19th century in Europe. Jean-Pierre Falret, was a leading French psychiatrist of his time. He advocated that the body had a dualistic nature where mind and body was separated. He believed that a diseased soul would cause a condition called novum organon and this condition would lead to mental illness. He published a condtion he called la folie circulaire, (cirular insanity) in 1851. This condition would be characterized by extreme mood swings from melancholia to mania. Today we know this condition to be Bipolar Affective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, or the older term Manic Depressive Disorder. Along with his associate psychitrist, Ernest-Charles Laseque, they observed that families seemed to share the same symptoms which they called Las