Understanding Bipolar DisorderExposing the Bipolar Disorder Quiz For an Acceptable Assessment Instead
Unfortunately, there's no simple, quick and easy test to diagnose people suspected of experiencing bipolar disorder. In fact, this ailment isn't even a single disorder. Rather, it's a term used to describe a number of mood disorders that are identified by mania or manic episodes, bouts of depression, and possibly psychotic episodes. One of or all the above can be present, making a simple and easy test for the disorder difficult to put together.
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How Bipolar Disorder is Diagnosed
A psychiatrist will typically base a bipolar disorder diagnosis on the patient's own descriptions of their behavior and feelings. They may also use feedback from family and friends of the patient along with their own observations of the patient.
While there are no single tests to check for bipolar disorders, a patient must meet a particular list of requirements to be diagnosed with it.
Psychological Tests to Check for Possible Onslaught
A doctor may ask a series of questions that pit a patient's symptoms or behavior patterns against a list of criteria for diagnosing the disorder. However, there is no single bipolar test used by psychiatric professionals the world over. There are also no biological tests to check for its presence.
The said, doctors may still administer certain physical tests to ensure that a patient's symptoms are not being caused by a possible medical problem. For example, a brain tumor or lesion can often cause a sudden change in behavior patterns that could be mistaken for bipolar disorder.
While there are no biological tests to diagnose bipolar disorder, there have been recent developments in brain scanning for common patterns. In 2005, the Mayo Clinic announced that it was working on a method which uses magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) to observe and identify specific patterns of metabolic activity that are common to afflicted patients.
How the Affliction can be Misdiagnosed
Because there are no biological tests for bipolar disorder, it can often be misdiagnosed. In fact, many patients are often diagnosed with depression, addiction, schizophrenia or other afflictions before finally being correctly assessed with bipolar disorder.
Classification of the Disorder
Once diagnosed through various clinical and psychological tests, bipolar disorders are often classified into one of four groupings. These include:
Bipolar I: In Bipolar I, a patient must have experienced at least one manic episode. This manic episode is not required to be accompanied by or followed by an episode of depression.
Bipolar II: Bipolar II is identified by more hypomanic episodes than typical manic expressions. The patient must have also exhibited at least one major depressive incident. Hypomanic episodes are often not as extreme or debilitating as manic versions.
Cyclothymia: Cyclothymia is characterized by hypomanic episodes and depressive episodes that are not major. For example, the patient experiences hypomanic episodes alongside depressive instances, but those depressive ones aren't debilitating.
Bipolar-NOS: NOS stands for Not Otherwise Specified and refers to an as-of-yet unclassified bipolar disorder that does not fit into the other three conventional categories of the disorder. For this diagnosis, a traditional psychological bipolar test may not be as effective as a customized evaluation of the patient.
