Review article

Do We Recognize and Diagnose Bipolar Affective Disorder?

Alma Mihaljević-Peleš
Marina Šagud
Maja Bajs Janović

Abstract

Bipolar affective disorder is a mood disorder in which an emotional state changes ones thoughts, behavior and the way one percieves and experiences the world. Depression and mania are the opposite poles of this disorder. Around these “bases” at different time intervals, patients experience elevated (mania) or decreased (depression) mood. Due to such a changeable clinical picture, which has an unpredictable clinical course, bipolar disorder (BD) is often misdiagnosed and/or diagnosed late. The disorder is most commonly recognized as a depressive disorder because in the state of mania the patients rarely seek treatment. In addition, BD often begins with some other psychiatric disorder such as anxiety disorder, eating disorder or addiction. The clinical course of the disease is such that many patients may have long periods of spontaneous remission during which no medication is needed, further challenging setting a diagnosis. BD is a mental disorder that significantly disturbs the biopsychosocial equilibrium of the patient, his family and the environment. It leads to serious cognitive impairment that complicates and shortens the lifespan of these patients. To date, no reliable biological and objective markers have been found to ensure the diagnosis of this disorder. We can only use the HCL-32 and MDQ screening instruments and unfortunately, we still do not use these instruments enough in screening and diagnosing bipolar patients.

Keywords

bipolar affective disorder; BD; depression; mania; mood disorders; diagnostics; probing instruments

Hrčak ID:

189042

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/189042

Publication date:

8.11.2017.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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