As many of us know, the diagnosis of bipolar disorder can be a difficult and inexact process.  It is especially difficult to accurately distinguish between depression and bipolar disorder.  As some of us have experienced, the effects of prescribing anti-depressants to individuals with bipolar disorder can be counterproductive.   Researchers believe they have developed a simple test to distinguish between some forms of bipolar disorder and depression. Type II bipolar disorder is easily confused with depression, as manic episodes in this condition are not very marked.  For this reason, individuals with this condition are often diagnosed with depression.

A simple test of 32 questions called the HCL-32 test has been developed to help distinguish major depression from bipolar disorder. The study documenting this is published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

According to the study, this test was able to identify more than 80 percent of patients with bipolar disorder. Although this test was not designed to distinguish between types I and II, this diagnosis should be easier to make given patient data and history.

I have heard that an on-line test will be developed soon.  In the meantime, here are the main questions used in the HCL-32:

Please try to remember a period when you were in a "high" state (while not using drugs or alcohol). In such a state:

1. I need less sleep
2. I feel more energetic and more active
3. I am more self-confident
4. I enjoy my work more
5. I am more sociable (make more phone calls, go out more)
6. I want to travel and/or do travel more
7. I tend to drive faster or take more risks when driving
8. I spend more money/too much money
9. I take more risks in my daily life (in my work and/or other activities)
10. I am physically more active (sport etc.)
11. I plan more activities or projects. 
12. I have more ideas, I am more creative
13. I am less shy or inhibited 
14. I wear more colorful and more extravagant clothes/make-up
15. I want to meet or actually do meet more people
16. I am more interested in sex, and/or have increased sexual desire
17. I am more flirtatious and/or am more sexually active
18. I talk more
19. I think faster
20. I make more jokes or puns when I am talking
21. I am more easily distracted
22. I engage in lots of new things
23. My thoughts jump from topic to topic
24. I do things more quickly and/or more easily
25. I am more impatient and/or get irritable more easily
26. I can be exhausting or irritating for others 
27. I get into more quarrels
28. My mood is higher, more optimistic
29. I drink more coffee
30. I smoke more cigarettes
31. I drink more alcohol
32. I take more drugs (sedatives, anti-anxiety pills, stimulants)
    

There’s a little more to the test than this, and I haven’t found information on actually scoring the test.  But looking this over it’s obviously thorough enough to cut to the core.

By the way, I took this test - does anyone else score 100%?