How to Diagnose Bipolar Disorder

Because the symptoms of bipolar disorder are often very similar to other mental illnesses, and patients may suffer from more than one condition at once, bipolar disorder is considered very difficult to diagnose. There are no specific diagnostic tests that currently exist, such as blood tests or brain imaging to detect or confirm bipolar disorder. Your doctor will use a variety of approaches to attempt to decide if bipolar disorder is the cause for your symptoms.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Learn How To Diagnose Bipolar Disorder

1. Discuss your medical history in detail with your doctor. Due to the fact that the symptoms of bipolar disorder, such as mood swings and sudden changes in behavior may come in cycles, it is necessary to review your past experiences with these symptoms in detail. This may help your doctor observe a pattern in your mental condition.

2. Review your family history of depression and mental illness with your doctor. It is believed by medical researchers that many mental conditions are genetic and may be inherited at birth. If someone in your family has suffered from bipolar disorder or other forms of depression, it is a good possibility that the symptoms you are experiencing are also related to this condition.

3. Observe any changes in your sleep schedule, especially if you notice that you have an extreme amount of energy despite lack of sleep. Try to notice if you experience shifts in the amount of happiness or sadness you feel from day to day, if you have extreme difficulty concentrating or if you feel much more social and talkative on certain days than others.

4. Understand that other issues in your life may be attributed to bipolar disorder, such as difficulty maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships, excessive use of drugs and alcohol or struggles with concentrating at work or school. Therefore, it's important to make your doctor aware of these issues when describing your symptoms.

5. Help your doctor rule out other psychiatric conditions by confirming which of your symptoms are consistent or inconsistent with bipolar disorder. If you experience the same symptoms of bipolar disorder for an extended period of time, usually at least 2 weeks on a daily basis, your doctor is likely to diagnose you with bipolar disorder.

Tips & Warnings

• Look for warning signs of manic episodes in your behavior to communicate to your doctor. It may be helpful to use a journal to keep track of the way you feel on a daily basis and the way these moods change. Write down any changes you notice in symptoms and highlight things that you notice consistently appear over time.

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[alystarcrane]

on 4/10/2009 Great article on diagnosing Bipolar Disorder�thanks for sharing. 5 stars