"’Manic depression and bipolar disorder are not the same,’" Dr Goodwin continued. Don’t feel guilty if you didn’t know this. The fact that Dr Goodwin had to clear up this misconception to a room full of psychiatrists speaks volumes. The term manic depression was coined by the pioneering diagnostician Emil Kraepelin, who defined it to mean a phenomenon that embraced all types of recurring depression, from unipolar to bipolar.

“Another way of phrasing this is that unipolar depression and bipolar disorder are not necessarily separate and distinct illnesses. There is plenty of room in the middle of the spectrum for overlap. This middle ground is what Dr Goodwin and collaborator S Nassir Ghaemi MD of Emory University refer to as Bipolar Spectrum Disorder, falling between some types of recurrent unipolar depression at one end and bipolar II and bipolar I at the other.

“Kraepelin's focus on recurrent cycling, Dr Goodwin concluded, provides a sounder basis for diagnosis than systems that focus on the polarity between mania and depression.”

Pow! A direct hit at the DSM and conventional diagnostics. Expect a lot more of this in the second edition. Once the rest of psychiatry gets with the program, all of us will be in much better hands.

I expect to return home with an autographed copy of the second edition. From me, he can expect a warm thank you for dedicating his life to improving mine. Stay tuned …