Several manic symptoms of bipolar disorder and ADHD resemble each other, often leading to misdiagnosis. The manic swings of bipolar can be mistaken for hyperactivity, while the low spells can look like inattention and lack of motivation, which are symptoms common in people with ADHD.
Bipolar disorder can be an elusive disorder for doctors to identify because the symptoms can vary widely and is often masked or exacerbated by other factors such as concurrent drug use or remission of symptoms. Stigma makes it even more difficult for people to get help.
Clinicians don't get enough information
Sometimes the person with bipolar disorder doesn't have an accurate memory of their mood states in the past. They may have misinterpreted a previous hypomanic episode as a good phase of their life or a period of stability in between depressive episodes.
The most common misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder is major depressive disorder (MDD). The symptoms of major depression last for at least two weeks and can include: persistent feelings of sadness or low mood. a loss of interest in activities you previously enjoyed.
However, some indications of faking mental illness can include exaggerating any existing symptoms, making up medical or psychological histories, causing self-harm, tampering with medical tests, or malingering.
Bipolar is one of the most frequently misdiagnosed mental health issues. Somewhere between 1.4 and 6.4 percent of people worldwide are affected by bipolar disorder. However, it's hard to say which number is more accurate due to the frequency of wrongful diagnosis.
Clinical overlap
Bipolar spectrum disorders, Parkinson's disease (PD), and DLB share several clinical features, such as the presence of ICD, and psychotic symptoms (49–52). For instance, hallucinations and delusions are typical of DLB and PD (49, 50) but also of the manic phases of BSD (51).
Only 33% of patients previously diagnosed with a bipolar disorder met full criteria for Bipolar I or II. The authors concluded that 67% of patients were overdiagnosed with bipolar disorder (Goldberg et al., 2008).
As per the survey taken by the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (DMDA), 69 percent of patients with bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed initially and more than one-third remained misdiagnosed for 10 years or more.
Our findings suggest that people living with bipolar disorders and their families experience different levels of stigma, whose consequences, in general, include feelings of disrespect, disregard, and discrimination in society. To cope with this phenomenon, families often choose social isolation and withdrawal.
It's common in children and adolescents, but it usually doesn't get diagnosed until adulthood—it can take up to ten years from the time a person experiences symptoms to the time they actually get diagnosed! So no, not everyone who has bipolar disorder knows they have it.
For a bipolar I diagnosis, a person needs to have a manic episode. The manic episode must last for at least 7 days, or any duration if the symptoms are so severe that hospitalization is necessary. Some people also experience depressive episodes that also include symptoms of mania.
Many people with bipolar disorder also have other mental disorders or conditions such as anxiety disorders, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), misuse of drugs or alcohol, or eating disorders.
Cyclothymia (sy-kloe-THIE-me-uh), also called cyclothymic disorder, is a rare mood disorder. Cyclothymia causes emotional ups and downs, but they're not as extreme as those in bipolar I or II disorder. With cyclothymia, you experience periods when your mood noticeably shifts up and down from your baseline.
The most common types of mood disorders are major depression, dysthymia (dysthymic disorder), bipolar disorder, mood disorder due to a general medical condition, and substance-induced mood disorder. There is no clear cause of mood disorders.
This study revealed that more than a third of patients with severe psychiatric disorders were misdiagnosed (39.16%). The commonly misdiagnosed disorder was found to be a schizoaffective disorder (75%) followed by major depressive disorder (54.72%), schizophrenia (23.71%), and bipolar disorder (17.78%).
There is no clinical proof that bipolar disorder increases the frequency of lying, although people with the disorder, and their families, often report this tendency. Such a tendency may stem from features of mania such as: memory disturbances. rapid speech and thinking.
Manipulation isn't a formal symptom of bipolar disorder, although some people with the condition may exhibit this behavior. In some cases, manipulative behavior is a result of living with another mental health condition, such as personality disorders, substance use disorders, or trauma.
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.