Bipolar Disorder Support Group
Bipolar disorder is not just a single disorder, but a category of mood disorders marked by periods of abnormally high energy and euphoria, often accompanied by bouts of clinical depression. This is the place to talk about your experience with bipolar disorder, learn from others' experiences, and find support.
Lou2 originally posted this as a comment to a post - but I thought it needed it's own post (hope you don't mind) & not saying everyone who has had the MDQ used is BPD, just agree it can be inaccurate:
Widely Used Screening Scale May Misidentify Borderline Personality Disorder as Bipolar Disorder
ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2010) A study from Rhode Island Hospital has shown that a widely-used screening tool for bipolar disorder may incorrectly indicate bipolar disorder for patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. In the article that appears online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the researchers question the effectiveness of the Mood Disorder
The MDQ is the most widely-used and studied screening tool for bipolar disorder. It is a brief questionnaire that assesses whether a patient displays some of the characteristic behaviors of bipolar disorder. It can be administered by clinicians or taken by patients on their own to determine if they screen positively for bipolar disorder. For the purposes of this study, the MDQ was scored by researchers.
Bipolar and borderline personality disorders share some clinical features, including fluctuations in mood and impulsive actions. The treatments, however, will vary depending on the individual and the diagnosis. Principal investigator Mark Zimmerman, MD, director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital, conducted a study to test the accuracy of the MDQ.
The research team interviewed nearly 500 patients using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) and the Structured Interview for DSM-IV for personality disorders. The patients were also asked to complete the MDQ. The research team then scored the questionnaires and found that patients with a positive indication for bipolar disorder using the MDQ were as likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as bipolar disorder when using the structured clinical interview. Further, their findings indicate that borderline personality disorder was four times more frequently diagnosed in the group who screened positive on the MDQ.
Zimmerman says that these findings raise caution for using the MDQ in clinical practice because of how differently the disorders are treated. "An incorrect diagnosis of bipolar disorder will usually lead to a treatment involving medications. If a patient truly has bipolar disorder, that treatment may work. However, at this time there are no approved medications to treat borderline personality disorder.
"Without an accurate diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, we may have many people in treatment who are taking medications that will not work to alleviate the characteristics of the condition from which they really suffer." Zimmerman, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, continues, "In addition, patients with unrecognized borderline personality disorder will not be treated with one of the effective psychotherapies for this condition. It is therefore vital that we develop or identify a more accurate method to distinguish between these two conditions, and adopt it into clinical practice."
Widely Used Screening Scale May Misidentify Borderline Personality Disorder as Bipolar Disorder
ScienceDaily (Mar. 28, 2010) A study from Rhode Island Hospital has shown that a widely-used screening tool for bipolar disorder may incorrectly indicate bipolar disorder for patients suffering from borderline personality disorder. In the article that appears online ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, the researchers question the effectiveness of the Mood Disorder
The MDQ is the most widely-used and studied screening tool for bipolar disorder. It is a brief questionnaire that assesses whether a patient displays some of the characteristic behaviors of bipolar disorder. It can be administered by clinicians or taken by patients on their own to determine if they screen positively for bipolar disorder. For the purposes of this study, the MDQ was scored by researchers.
Bipolar and borderline personality disorders share some clinical features, including fluctuations in mood and impulsive actions. The treatments, however, will vary depending on the individual and the diagnosis. Principal investigator Mark Zimmerman, MD, director of outpatient psychiatry at Rhode Island Hospital, conducted a study to test the accuracy of the MDQ.
The research team interviewed nearly 500 patients using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV) and the Structured Interview for DSM-IV for personality disorders. The patients were also asked to complete the MDQ. The research team then scored the questionnaires and found that patients with a positive indication for bipolar disorder using the MDQ were as likely to be diagnosed with borderline personality disorder as bipolar disorder when using the structured clinical interview. Further, their findings indicate that borderline personality disorder was four times more frequently diagnosed in the group who screened positive on the MDQ.
Zimmerman says that these findings raise caution for using the MDQ in clinical practice because of how differently the disorders are treated. "An incorrect diagnosis of bipolar disorder will usually lead to a treatment involving medications. If a patient truly has bipolar disorder, that treatment may work. However, at this time there are no approved medications to treat borderline personality disorder.
"Without an accurate diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, we may have many people in treatment who are taking medications that will not work to alleviate the characteristics of the condition from which they really suffer." Zimmerman, who is also an associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, continues, "In addition, patients with unrecognized borderline personality disorder will not be treated with one of the effective psychotherapies for this condition. It is therefore vital that we develop or identify a more accurate method to distinguish between these two conditions, and adopt it into clinical practice."
isn't treatment - meds ( cocktail) diffrent for ea,hum,I dunno.
diog a person as having BP is a lot easier & faster to lable & issuse standard prescribed medication..
sort of like use of over welming misuse of c-sections.
Dr's use convayer belt. this incess thier income.
and they don't wantt to be late for lunch nor t-off time nor fitting in quicky w thier mistress.
re-run this post again at a latter time. I think that everyone on this group should have access to the info.
By three tdocs. Then one pdoc dx'd me withplain bipolar not otherwise specified. Then another pdoc dx'd me with borderline personality disorder and bipolar . Them the last one dx'd me with just bpd. I'm so confused with what I have . He took me off of depakote. Increased the wellbutrin and increased the stelazine but I quit taking the stelazine because my body started twitching. bpd is curable where as bp has no cure so if I do just have bpd then I will be cured eventually.
I was always told that borderline was not cureable either tho perhaps I was misinformed - wouldnt be the first time
I can tell you from experience, for me, BPD is more to do with my coping strategies and my relationships than long term mood issues. In other words, it's a situational trigger versus a long term mood change that causes the emotional disregulation.
Does that make any sense?
My BF has been dx'd with both, and bipolar meds really help him.
But that is what "they" say in general, that the BPD is managed with therapy. I do not personally know anyone who is BPD and not also dx'd as BP, though. So I don't have enough knowledge of that.
http://www.everydayhealth.com/bipolar/webcasts/bipolar-disorder-up-down-and-out-of-control.aspx
the last pdoc said that bp is over dxd and that i really have bpd because i cycle too quickly to have bp.
the last pdoc said that bp is over dxd and that i really have bpd because i cycle too quickly to have bp.
One thing about reading up on personality disorders helped me, is that I realized I did have some of the symptoms - I have worked very hard - on my own (no therapist in Canada), to not have those symptoms, and now I have been off of meds for 4 or 5 years. I'm not saying I'm not bp, but I have to think some bits of some kind of personality disorder, esp. when my brother has been definitely diagnosed with it. (I'm talking dysfunctional family!)
I do get some depression in winter, but I am able to identify and get out of it. And definitely a terrible sleep disorder. So when even a normal person is sleep deprived - hallucinations and stuff. To say nothing of the side effects of all the prednisone I was given.
I'm thinking with all these conflicting opinions, that the science of mental health diagnosis is very inexact. Still, if the meds help, then go for it. I also was on anti-anxieites, and they made me much more anxious.