3 Ways Doctors Diagnose Bipolar Disorder

You’ve probably heard about bipolar disorder before, but chances are that you don’t even realize how dangerous it might be. If you suspect you or someone close to you suffers from this disease, pay your physician a visit and get screened as soon as possible.

Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder was once known as manic depression because of the two main episodes that the condition consists of – mania and depression. When emotional lows or depression hit, a person might feel tired, hopeless, and sad most of the time, and might even lose their will to live.

Mania, on the other hand, increases a person’s energy levels; they become more creative and euphoric. These people usually sleep very little, exaggerate everything they do, and don’t know how to stop behaving erratically. Due to these mixed states, bipolar disorder can be hard to detect and diagnose, but there are various methods that provide decent results, which are still far from ideal.

How do doctors diagnose Bipolar Disorder?

Once you decide to pay your physician a visit about the difficulties with manic behavior or severe depression, they are likely to perform several tests in order to determine what’s been causing your problems.

Complete physical examination

If you suspect you have bipolar disorder and your doctor agrees with you, they should perform several tests which include laboratory testing to determine whether a physical condition such as thyroid problems might be causing your symptoms. If a person is physically healthy, they should be referred to a mental health specialist; a psychologist or preferably a psychiatrist.

Psychiatric evaluation

If your physician thinks you have bipolar disorder, they’re likely to arrange you urgent appointment with a mental health specialist, especially if you have a history of harming yourself. A psychiatrist will ask questions about how you feel, as well as details about your mood, and your family’s medical history. If you have a history of bipolar disorder in your family, the specialist will probably want you to come with this family member the next time. When it comes to minors, their appointments should be supervised by a parent or a caregiver.

Mood charting

For mental disorders, mood charting can assist your doctor or therapist in gaining better insights into the time span and severity of your mood fluctuations, as well as how often you switch from “highs” to “lows”. This is a good method to recognize stressors and events that may serve as potential triggers for your bipolar disorder.

The National Institute of Mental Health has developed a chart that monitors patients with bipolar disorder daily. The “Life Chart Method” records how severe manic and depressive episodes are, but also when patients take medications, as well as life events that may trigger a bad response.

Self-testing

Identifying bipolar disorder can be hard and requires a meticulous analysis by a specialist. However, there are free screening tests you can check out online that can give you a rough idea and suggest if you might be suffering from bipolar disorder, but they should never replace a professional evaluation.

What are the criteria for diagnosing Bipolar Disorder?

It’s important to note that there’s no single test to determine whether someone suffers from bipolar disorder. Medical experts will use several physical exams, laboratory tests, and psychic evaluations to come to the conclusion, and it still might be a wrong one.

DSM-5

According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), a well-known diagnostic tool for all psychiatric conditions published by the American Psychiatric Society, a person must experience at least one manic episode that may have occurred before or has been followed by either hypomanic or depressive period. This manic episode lasts at least seven days, most of the day.

During the manic episode, a person’s energy is increased, and they must meet at least three criteria, but often patients exhibit most of the symptoms from the DSM-5 list:

1. God-like behavior (feeling of superiority)
2. No need for rest (can go for days without sleep)
3. Talking uncontrollably, sometimes even gibberish
4. Racing thoughts (many ideas that cannot all be executed)
5. Sensitivity to external and irrelevant stimuli (inability to focus)
6. Increased orientation towards goals
7. Impulsively pursuing risky behaviors and activities that may harm them.

According to research, misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder greatly worsens the condition. Some of the major contributors to misdiagnosis include a lack of diagnostic tools and the presence of other psychiatric conditions. To decrease the risk of misdiagnosis, doctors should perform careful screenings with all available screening instruments.