Bipolar Disorder Overdiagnosed

I agree with both of you in that way too many people are now being diagnosed bipolar when in fact they are not. I feel this is mostly from the fact that it is the huge pharmaceuticals that are pushing in order to get more people to use and buy their drugs. I am not saying it is a conspiracy, but these companies need to find new patients to increase their bottom line.

I equate it to having the fox guard the chicken coop, doesn’t really make any sense but yet it continues. These big so called studies that come out each year of under diagnoses and now the big push to say children all the way back to the womb may have it are sponsored by this big drug companies.

Here is another though…just watched a segment on the news last night about genetically altered seeds and crops such as corn and soybean which makes up 60% of the food now found in the supermarket. The question posed was what effects these new strains have on us that are now eating them. No one has a clue as it is too early to tell. I wonder if these may in fact have the ability to alter our own moods and stability.

Are there people that don’t get diagnosed? Sure there are, but I am willing to bet that the number of misdiagnosed are much higher than most think. Thanks for sharing

What exactly would be involved in a clinical diagnosis of BPD ?  I have been diagnosed but I am wondering exactly what criteria is used in making that  decision.  I was not given a series of test or any test that I can recall. Just a few questions during conversation.  How could that be considered a valid means of diagnosis ?

Thank you,

KMIDS

Thank you for entertaining the idea that Bipolarism could be overdiagnosed!  I clearly remember being amazed that in that quick (maybe 1 hour) interview by a psychiatrist (whom I had never met), my life was changed.  Just that quick, I had a new label.....I was bipolar.  He didn't know me and I didn't know him.  I was sent to his office for depression and severe migraine headaches.  Walked out with bipolar and prescriptions.

I accept the diagnosis.  It's alright.  Perhaps it's accurate.  I must let you in on a little "secret" about which I laugh everytime I think about it-----I was allowed to read that inital Psych eval.  I learned that I had a bipolar mother and brother.  Here's the humor:  I have 3 sisters and NO brother and my mother, she had some "manic-depressive episodes" in her 20's-30's (when she had 4 young children at home and was a stay at home mother)------BUT, she has never been medicated since.  Amazing.  I believe that my diagnosis was drawn from the psych's belief that I had a mother and brother who were bipolar.  He was terribly fidgety during our interview and I remember feeling like we didn't connect.   Looks like we didn't.

It's alright with me, I guess.  That diagnosis cost me my kids---he used it in court.  I had NO charges, notations, or accusations against me other than bipolar (oh, and the nice lady in Tx. had drowned her kids the week before).  The diagnosis has costs me friends and jobs---the media has made many afraid of bipolar "crazies."  But, it is all right.  I am ok.  My psych says that I am fine.  I take less meds now, with regards to psych than ever.  Life goes on.  But, Psychiatrists need to THINK before they throw those words around-----they alter the course of many, many peoples' lives.

Thanks for the article.  It was one that needed to be printed.

Jerry, could you print the name of the test and where, a lay person, might be able to see it.

Sorry, forgot the link here

Having recently gone through a hospitalization, I've gone from diagnosed with major depression to bipolar depression. While I've been blogging (http://everybodyknowsinertia.blogspot.com/) and trying to figure out what symptoms, if any, fit a bipolar diagnosis, I constantly worry about the level of professionalism in psychotherapists. Like another commenter, in the hospital, my psych often talked to me about how I was feeling as he walked away from me. These people have their rounds, their other patients. How does a discussion held at 10 p.m. on the ledge of an indoor window or at 7 a.m. when I've just woken up, provide accurate and adequate information for a diagnosis.

Moreover, it seems as if psychiatrists these days are less eager to listen, and more eager to dash off a couple prescriptions on a pad. And then, few believe you when you come back to them with documented side effects. This isn't to say that all psychiatrists are bad, but I think it's very rare to find one who listens, who works with a patient, who goes that extra step to figure out what is truly going on with the patient. Like therapy, there should be a relationship with your psychiatrist. And not all psychiatrists are a good fit.

Alternatively, some of the burden of proof remains on the patient's shoulders. How can we hope for an accurate description when we aren't even sure what to tell our doctors. For the longest time, I thought mania meant you were extremely happy, all the time. It wasn't until I was in the hospital talking to patients with bipolar that I began to understand the symptoms and how they seemed to explain parts of my life that I'd had no reason to bring up to my psychiatrist or therapist until recently.

It's funny, I have read articles by Doctors here in Australia asaying the same thing. However, I seem to have gone through the reverse process. Fist it was post-natal, then antidepressants prescribed, then mania, then down again, different antidpressants prescribed, then more issues around mania, hypomania (at the time just thought that was MY normal). Still by the time I presented at the pscyh was crying, frustrated, agitated etc and the unipolar depression diagnosis continued. Then a new psych put me on a mood stabiliser with the antidpressant - bit better, then another took me off antidpressants - alot better, then I seem to have sensitivites to meds (rash on Lamictal and on Buspar) and they gave up and called it borderline personality disorder, now back to bipolar again due to a long burst of hypomania followed by a drop into depresion the last 5 weeks and a great new Dr who has been in the field for years as a teacher and clinician. So I tend to think misdiagnosis is still rife, on the other hand, I can see the point of Drs arguing that overdiagnosis is occurring.

Funny old world really...

N