Researchers publishing in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry argue that broadening the diagnostic criteria for bipolar disorder would result in a greater increase in “false positives” than in “true” diagnoses, while there are no controlled studies demonstrating the efficacy of mood stabilizers in treating “subthreshold” bipolar disorder. They also assert that an increase in “false positive” diagnoses would go undetected because the absence of future manic/hypomanic episodes would “incorrectly be considered evidence of the efficacy of treatment, and the unnecessary medications that might cause medically significant side effects would not be discontinued.”
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Glad to read this, especially given that the agitation caused by SSRI’s routinely gets misdiagnosed as bi-polar “spectrum” opening the door for the add on of anti-seizure meds and anti-psychotics along with their side effects. Every time a new “diagnosis” and medication is added to a treatment plan, the possibility of ever being free of the debilitating effects of psych drugs is severely diminished. My heart goes out to those brave souls who try to manage multiple tapers in an effort to disentangle themselves from the med web. Many give up in despair and remain life long customers of the pharmaceutical industry. But I’m guessing that was the point.
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