The Bipolar Spectrum: Diagnosis or Fad?

Joel Paris discusses the over-diagnosis of bipolar disorder and the negative impact of this trend on clinical care. The book opens with a careful review of scientific evidence that verifies that diagnoses of bipolar disorder are often made on dubious grounds. Included in this discussion is a review of the drugs patients are prescribed, along with an overview of other treatments from which they could benefit. Paris then moves into a discussion of the clinical presentations of bipolar-I and --II to demonstrate that they should not be used to explain psychopathological phenomena, including depression, personality and behavioral disorders, and substance abuse and eating disorders. The last section of the text ties all of the ideas together and places the over-diagnosis of bipolar disorder in the larger context of fads to which psychiatry has long been prone.