True diagnoses in bipolar depression: differentiation between unipolar and bipolar depression

Bipolar disoder can be difficult to diagnose and is often misdiagnosed as recurrent major depressive disorder While diagnosing major depressive episode clinicians should be checking for a history of mania or hypomania, which is indicative of bipolar disorder rather than major depressive disorder. Bipolar depression is associated with more mood lability, more motor retardation, and hypersomnia. Early age of onset, a high frequency of depressive episodes, bipolar family history are suggestive of bipolar disorder rather than major depression. Severity of mood symptoms are strongly associated with functional impairment and disability among bipolar patients. The association of Level of disablity is much stronger with depressive symptoms than symptoms of mania. Misdiagnose can result with inappropriate treatment which has a detrimental effect on the course of the illness. The differential diagnosis of bipolar disorder will be reviewed with a case sample with this article.