To diagnose bipolar disorder, a doctor performs a physical exam, asks about your symptoms, and recommends blood testing to determine if another condition, such as hypothyroidism, is causing your symptoms. If the doctor does not find an underlying cause of your symptoms, he or she performs a psychological evaluation.
But treatment ought to commence immediately, making an early diagnosis extremely necessary. Thanks to the research team, bipolar disorder can now be diagnosed with utmost accuracy through a blood test.
What tests will the doctor use to make a bipolar diagnosis? Your doctor may have you fill out a mood questionnaire or checklist to help guide the clinical interview when they assess mood symptoms. In addition, your doctor may order blood and urine tests to rule out other causes of your symptoms.
Diagnosing bipolar disorder usually involves a thorough examination of your physical health. This is to rule out a physical cause or other health concerns. It also involves an assessment of your mental state and the careful assessment of your symptoms and life experiences.
General practitioners are often consulted for first presentations of bipolar disorder and are well placed to coordinate patient care.
Bipolar disorder can be confused with other conditions, such as depression, schizophrenia, BPD, anxiety, and ADHD. Detecting and diagnosing bipolar disorder may take some time. But getting a correct, early diagnosis often results in better outcomes.
Only a mental health professional like a psychiatrist can give you a bipolar disorder diagnosis – not your GP. However, if you're experiencing bipolar moods and symptoms, discussing it with your GP can be a good first step. They can refer you to a psychiatrist, who will be able to assess you.
It's normal for your mood to change in response to different situations, news, or challenges you encounter throughout a day. But if your mood shifts dramatically between extreme highs and lows, it may be a sign of bipolar disorder. Mood episodes lasting at least four days are a sign of bipolar disorder.
A clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder usually entails a relatively long interval between the initial presentation and the accurate diagnosis. Previous studies have reported that patients may wait for as long as 5-10 years4-7 from the onset of illness before the diagnosis is confirmed.
What is the typical age of onset for bipolar disorder? The average age of bipolar onset is around 25 years old, although it can vary. Sometimes bipolar symptoms start in childhood or later in life. However, the most frequent range of onset is between the ages of 14 to 21 years.
Grandiosity and overconfidence. Easy tearfulness, frequent sadness. Needing little sleep to feel rested. Uncharacteristic impulsive behavior.
being easily irritated or agitated. being delusional, having hallucinations and disturbed or illogical thinking. not feeling like sleeping. doing things that often have disastrous consequences – such as spending large sums of money on expensive and sometimes unaffordable items.
A stressful circumstance or situation often triggers the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Examples of stressful triggers include: the breakdown of a relationship. physical, sexual or emotional abuse.
Bipolar disorder can be difficult to diagnose because it affects everyone differently. Also, the symptoms of bipolar disorder can be experienced by people who have other mental illness diagnoses. It can take a long time to get a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
This is especially true for bipolar disorder (BD), which shares several symptoms with adult ADHD. Moreover, besides an overlapping clinical presentation, BD is often co-occurring in adults with ADHD, with comorbidity figures as high as 20%.
The first onset of bipolar disorder symptoms (depression and mania) often surface when you are in your twenties, regardless of sex. However, research shows that the initial depressive episode in men tends to arise about 5 years earlier than in women. That's about 22 years old in men versus about 27 years old in women.
Is bipolar disorder on the autism spectrum? No. Bipolar disorder is not part of the autism spectrum, though an unusually large number of people with bipolar disorder are also autistic (and vice versa).
Some experts believe that experiencing a lot of emotional distress as a child can cause bipolar disorder to develop. This could be because childhood trauma and distress can have a big effect on your ability to manage your emotions. This can include experiences like: Neglect.
Cyclothymic disorder is a mental disorder. It is a mild form of bipolar disorder (manic depressive illness), in which a person has mood swings over a period of years that go from mild depression to emotional highs.
Rapid speech
Some people are naturally talkative; we all know a motormouth or Chatty Cathy. But "pressured speech" is one of the most common symptoms of bipolar disorder.
Bipolar disorder is primarily a mood disorder. ADHD affects attention and behavior; it causes symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. While ADHD is chronic or ongoing, bipolar disorder is usually episodic, with periods of normal mood interspersed with depression, mania, or hypomania.
People with bipolar experience both episodes of severe depression and episodes of mania – overwhelming joy, excitement or happiness, huge energy, a reduced need for sleep, and reduced inhibitions. The experience of bipolar is uniquely personal. No two people have exactly the same experience.