More Than Half of Bipolar Diagnosis is Missed

By BrainPhysics Staff, Mon, January 03, 2011

A study shows that majority of psychotherapists miss the diagnosis of bipolar disorder:

"It's well known that the first time many people seek help for bipolar disorder symptoms, they only report symptoms of depression, not realizing that hypomanic behaviors have any significance, often leading to a wrong initial diagnosis. But now a study published in the Journal of Affective Disorders has found that only 41% of psychotherapists correctly identified bipolar disorder even when symptoms of hypomania were included in the presentation.

204 psychotherapists were given hypothetical situations that fulfilled the criteria for bipolar disorder and asked to decide on a diagnosis. All the situations included symptoms of depression plus at least 3 possible hypomanic symptoms. Some included one more symptom, either reduced sleep or distractability, and half of them gave a possible reason for hypomania - meeting a new partner."

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