In some extremities, people with an acute bipolar disorder may develop a second personality altogether. A person with 2 behaviors or "2 person" living in one body, each with distinct personality.

both are mood disorder. mood can be 2 ways, up and down. when one get too high, it's call manic, while when the mood goes too down, it's call depression.
when a person has bipolar, means his mood can swing up and down.
while for a depression patient, his symptoms is always down.

it's quite easy to differentiate bipolar from depression if a good history is taken from relatives and patient. in Bipolar patient, they often has history of elevated mood, fights of idea, spending spree, reduce sleep,  (there's a criteria to diagnose this disease) while for depression, they must also meet a sets of criteria.(low mood, loss of interest, hopeless, guilt, want to die, loss of appetite, weight, insomnia/sleep a lot)

Someone looking for help with their homework today?

OK now that we're on the topic, I am curious..

What is the difference between "Bipolar disorder" and "Schizophrenia"?

Well, you've found the answer for Bipolar already, while the diagnosis of Depression is only restricted to depression with no manic episodes.
No, Schizophrenia is not split personality. It's often confused as such due to too much bad tv. A person with Schizo is someone who percieves a different reality. Such as having hallucination or hearing voices.

Well since you're having the entire LYN resource, I think the most you'll get out of your assignment is a B-

Good luck.

If you are doing a paper, might i suggest these resources:

1. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV- Text revision
2. Any psychiatry textbook. I recommend Kaplan and Sadock Textbook of Psychiatry

Use the DSM IV, we tend to use it more than the ICD-10

http://www.mental-health-today.com/dep/dsm.htm

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Added on February 20, 2009, 7:45 pm

This is inaccurate. Bipolar disorder is NOT a split personality disorder. Do NOT confuse the two. In fact there is no diagnosis of split personality in the DSM-IV. It is also not schizophrenia, which is a type of psychosis characterized by delusions, bizarre beliefs and hallucinations. Think about the movie " a beautiful mind". Thats schizophrenia

Dude, this cant be explained here. Go do some reading on your own. Get the books i told you about. Depression is not better than bipolar, there is no comparison between the two.

They causes are usually life stressors, but organic causes need to be ruled out first. The way life stressors cause depression stems from a theory called Learned Helplessness, i forget the name of the guy who postulated it. Go google that and learn more. It explains why some people get depression and some dont despite being faced by the same challenge. It has an interplay with who you are, how you solve problems and your environment and the people around you.

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Added on February 20, 2009, 8:19 pm

like i said earlier, people with manic episodes only are classified as having Bipolar Disorder as well. There is no given diagnosis as Mania, although it is a clinical entity.

There are also Bipolar I and Bipolar II mood disorders which I am not going into details. 

Suicidal ideations and attempts are part of the depressive phenomenon. I am sorry about your friend but the psychiatrist probably tried the best that he could. Its not possible to accurately determine who will commit suicide and who would not although there may be some signs that may suggest an increased likelihood.

i read Kaplan's in the morning & when i need info ONLY..
that book makes me damn sleepy..
Oxford is quite fun to read.. with it's "cold jokes" too..

mega_lara_86,
the diagnosis of Depression / Bipolar might not have too much bearing on your friend's fate..
because from your post, it would seems almost as if the doctor diagnosed her to have Pneumonia when she was having lung Cancer..