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Bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic, potentially severe psychiatric illness. In recent years, research focusing on the prodromal and early stages of BD have shown that early detection and intervention strategies have the potential to delay, reduce the severity, or even prevent full episodes of mania. According to this view, a new pathway presents for the clinical management of mood disorders, including not only concern with the treatment of manic and depressive episodes, but also seeking the early detection and diagnosis, and fundamentally, the prevention of BD. The purpose of this article is to discuss data available in the literature on the early stages of BD, the challenges involved in early detection, and the implications that this approach may have for interventions and clinical management before or after the development of the first episode of mania, which is the established marker for the beginning of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]