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Increased Diagnosis of Bipolar
May 11, 2008
by Anonymous,
1 year 28 weeks ago
Comment: 29756
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While misdiagnosing bipolar unnecessarily exposes people to the potential negative side effects of medications used to treat bipolar, underdiagnosis of bipolar can also cause problems. There's a good, balanced article about this on the Bipolar Blog entitled "Bipolar Diagnosis on the Rise: Pros and Cons."
What seems to occur quite often is that doctors will prescribe a medication that can potentially trigger mania or hypomania (such as an SSRI antidepressant or an amphetamine, such as Ritalin). When the person then becomes manic, he or she is diagnosed bipolar and given medication to treat the mania.
I think the area where overdiagnosis of bipolar is worst is with children - we're seeing kids as young as 4 years old being diagnosed bipolar.