Bipolar Disorder Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Bipolar Disorder - Term Paper Example Center of discussion in this paper is bipolar disorder as a disease with subtle specificity and sensitivity. With the widening of the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder comes the loss of specificity and danger of overdiagnosis due to the increase in sensitivity of the subtle manifestations of bipolar disorder. As a result, overdiagnosis poses substantially greater potential for harm as desired treatment may not be appropriate and may lead to induction of hypomania, mixed states, rapid cycling, and worsening of preexisting agitation. Bipolar disorder is difficult to distinguish from other disorders because of mood variations in hormones, personality disturbances, personal stress, sleep problems, ingestion of drugs or alcohol and diseases of the brain, trouble in getting accurate histories because of difficulty in describing mood states to others, and inadequately trained professionals in the recognition of the subtle form of the disorder. These factors, together with the diagnos tic criteria itself, create confusion in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder as certain symptoms can occur in other disorder. Clinicians, researchers, and allied health practitioners are challenged to prevent the over/misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder through different studies and literature, differentiating the subtle forms of bipolar disorder from the true bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder and its subtle forms gained attention during 1983 when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) verified the existence of relatively mild and subtle spectrum of bipolar disorders.... iseases of the brain, trouble in getting accurate histories because of difficulty in describing mood states to others, and inadequately trained professionals in the recognition of the subtle form of the disorder (Miklowitz, 2011, 43). These factors, together with the diagnostic criteria itself, create confusion in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder as certain symptoms can occur in other disorder. Clinicians, researchers, and allied health practitioners are challenged to prevent the over/misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder through different studies and literature, differentiating the subtle forms of bipolar disorder from the true bipolar disorder. Review of Literature Bipolar disorder and its subtle forms gained attention during 1983 when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) verified the existence of relatively mild and subtle spectrum of bipolar disorders (Grinspoon, 1983, 281). The subtle forms of bipolar disorder manifest psychomotor, interpersonal, and vocational dimension, rath er than alterations in mood which is the core symptom of bipolar disorder. According to Grinspoon (1983), the subtle forms of bipolar disorder range between cyclothymic disorder and dysthymic disorder (281). Cyclothymic disorder starts during teenage or early adulthood years and may often be diagnosed as a personality disorder. Cycles are short and last for only a few days and may not meet the category for hypomania due to biphasic course. On the other hand, dysthymic disorders are subaffective and subtle hypomania is present. Onset is indeterminate and cardinal symptoms often occur at age 21. A full range of depressive symptoms occurs at subsyndromal level, and a patient is categorized in the subtle forms of bipolar disorder if patients do not have any diagnosable nonaffective disorder