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Re: Is It Depression or Bipolar?

Posted by Emily Elizabeth on June 7, 2010, at 5:46:02

In reply to Is It Depression or Bipolar?, posted by Phillipa on June 4, 2010, at 21:25:41

This is an interesting article. I liked thinking about some of the "red flags." One thing caught my eye:

"Our findings suggest that about one-third of people with major depression have [undiagnosed bipolar disorder]," Swanson says. "Currently patients have to have elevated mood or irritability before we can even consider a diagnosis of bipolar disease. Our findings suggest that may not always be the case."

I found that both shocking and a bad idea! Dx'ing BP w/o evidence of a manic episode would really change things. Now, here is cynical me: med companies stand to benefit from more dx of BP. Of course, Lithium is cheap, but the new antipsychotics are $$$ and are often used to treat BP issues.

They have been kicking around the idea for a while now that folks w/ depression that don't respond to typical antidepressants and do respond to mood stabilizers/AP's (e.g., me!) actually have some variant of BP. That too would change our current conceptualization of diagnosis (i.e. coming up w/ dx from medication response).

There is also the thought that depression and BP are more alike than different and should always be considered part of the same spectrum.

I'm interested to know what others think about this.

Best,
EE


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poster:Emily Elizabeth thread:949965
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100604/msgs/950218.html