Are there any medical conditions that can cause mania or depression?

Medical conditions should always be considered as a potential cause or exacerbating source for a manic or depressive episode.  Because of their medical backgound, psychiatrists routinely consider medical conditions as possible causes for mood disorders and thus will assess a person's medical history.  Your psychiatrist may consider obtaining laboratory tests as part of screening for medical conditions, or he or she may defer this evaluation to your primary care physician.  Most often, mania and depression occur independently of another medical disorder, but if there are physical signs and symptoms other than those typically found in a mood disorder, a medical/physical examination to rule out physical causes for the mood symptoms is warranted.  Also, if a medical condition exists, it may very well be that the mood symptoms are not physiologically related but merely co-occurring with the illness.

Endocrine disorders, cardiac conditions, cancers, neurological conditions, vitamin deficiencies, autoimmune disorders, and so on can be associated with depression or mania.  Treatment of the co-occurring medical disorder may not result in resolution of the mood symptoms, but their resolution would support the physiological connection.  Even so, for chronic medical conditions, long-term treatment may still be required with antidepressant or antimanic medications.