Symptoms of Depression: Might Your Patient Have Bipolar Disorder?

Guest: Roger S. McIntyre, MD, FRCPC <br> <div class="hidden--desktop"> <p data-renderer-start-pos="378">Up to a quarter of patients being treated for major depressive disorder in a primary care setting may actually have bipolar disorder.<sup data-renderer-mark="true">1,2</sup> A significant number of patients with bipolar disorder are receiving a misdiagnosis of unipolar depression.<sup data-renderer-mark="true">3</sup> The consequences of misdiagnosis can be substantial.<sup data-renderer-mark="true">4</sup> It’s critical for primary care providers to stay alert for historical and emerging symptoms of bipolar disorder in undiagnosed patients, gain expertise in providing ongoing treatment to diagnosed patients, and know how to manage comorbidities, explains Dr. Roger McIntyre Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto, in an article entitled, <em data-renderer-mark="true">Bipolar Depression: The Clinical Characteristics and Unmet Needs of a Complex Disorder</em>. </p> <p data-renderer-start-pos="1135">The open access article is available online at the journal's website:</p> <p data-renderer-start-pos="1206">Roger S. McIntyre &amp; Joseph R. Calabrese (2019) Biploar depression: the clinical characteristics and unmet needs of a complex disorder, Current Medical Research and Opinion, 35:11, 1993-2005, DOI: 10.1080/03007995.2019.1636017</p> <p data-renderer-start-pos="1434"><strong>References<br /></strong>1. Hirschfeld RMA, Cass AR, Holt DCL, et al. <em>J Am Board Fam Pract. </em>2005;18(4):233-239.<br />2. Olfson M, Das AK, Gameroff MJ, et al.<em> Am J Psychiatry. </em>2005;162:2146-2151.<br />3. Berk M, Hallam K, Lucas N, et al. <em>Med J ...