Bipolar Misdiagnosis

  

Bipolar disorder is one disorder with symptoms at times can be confused with schizophrenia; this leads to mistaken diagnoses, especially in children. Individuals with bipolar disorder, even those that display psychotic symptoms as a feature of their illness, never meet the full diagnosis for schizophrenia. Someone with bipolar disorder is not always in a manic or a depressive phase all o0f the time;  there are periods during which they do not have the disordered thinking, delusions, voices, or other symptoms of schizophrenia. Psychotic symptoms are in bipolar disorder which can occur in a manic or a depressive state are delusions of grandeur and hallucinations; either wildly optimistic and grandiose, or disastrous and guilt-ridden thoughts.

Schizoaffective disorder is a disease that does contain symptoms of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. The distinguishing difference between schizoaffective and bipolar with psychotic symptoms is that to be diagnosed schizoaffective, a person displays the symptoms of schizophrenia without mood symptoms of mania or depression.

 Psychosis is a term used to describe psychotic symptoms. Bipolar may include a kind of psychosis. Several different brain disorders can lead to psychotic symptoms, and the fact that the symptoms are not being caused by some other brain disorder is frequently not obvious.

The main difference between bipolar disorder and major clinical depression is, of course, the absence of manic episodes.  Distinguishing between these two illnesses makes a big impact on treatment choice; while depression is usually treated with antidepressants, someone with bipolar disorder needs mood stabilizers. Taking antidepressants with bipolar disorder can sometimes trigger a manic episode.

Some of other diagnoses are that are less common but still seen at a high rate among patients previously diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Include antisocial personality disorder and impulse-control disorder.

Borderline personality disorder shows an unstable mood, impulsive behavior and problems maintaining relationships with other people. There are no medications approved specifically for treating borderline personality disorder butt some forms of therapy are effective. However, mood stabilizers and other treatments for bipolar disorder are not helpful in treating borderline disorder.

 Over diagnosis of people as having bipolar disorder is of a major concern; the side effects of the medication antipsychotics included are so devastating if prescribed incorrectly. And the under diagnosis of bipolar disorder leaves many people at a risk of not being treated or not having symptoms noticed before a disaster such as suicide is treated.