Abhidhamma on Chittas and Chetasikas of Bi-polar disorders, Autism, and many mental disorders Here's what I'm given to understand: 

The Abhidhamma manual classifies all possible mental states of a human being into - various different kinds of Chittas and Chetasikas.

Here's what I want to know:


Are the mental states of (what is generally considered to be a) disorder, like say - Bipolar disorder, Autism etc. also considered and classified in this text?
Is there a way out of it? Is there anyway for someone who wants to help those in deeper suffering because of this. Meditation, medication, perspective, world view etc.
I highly doubt you can find a one-to-one correspondence between modern psychiatric disorders and the classification of mental factors in Buddhist Abhidhamma. The two have completely unfamiliar zeitgeists or views of the world.

That said, I think you will find that many of the symptoms or more granular descriptions of the western psychiatric disorders are present or reflective of similar mental factors in the Abhidhamma. One thing you will not find in the latter is a classification of brain states or the physical mechanisms underlying many of the former. That is to say that western psychiatric disorders are - not entirely unwarranted - preoccupied with the workings of the brain as opposed to the workings of the mind. The two are not the same although with neural plasticity the two can lead to change in the other.

So, I think you will find that the efficacy of treating mental factors in Abhidhamma will be non-linear with treating western psychiatric disorders although they will have some effect on one another.

BTW, this is the canonical place where western psychiatric disorders are catalogued and described: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is important to note that although this is the de facto canonical catalogue of western psychiatry that many western psychiatrists themselves view this catalog as subjective and arbitrary and providing only superficial and unreliable classification of disorders.

Hope this helps!