People diagnosed with bipolar disorder are increasing in specialized outpatient care. From 26,103 patients in 2016 to 31,191 people in 2018. According to experts, this is not due to the fact that more people actually suffer from the disease but that doctors increasingly make the diagnosis.
- What I hope for is identifying more and more people with this disease. But we see examples of failing to make a sufficiently accurate diagnosis and, so to speak, other states of mood swings for bipolar disorder, says Mats Adler, chief physician in psychiatry at Karolinska University Hospital in Huddinge
Important to look at the wholeA person suffering from the disease commutes between healthy periods, depression and mania or hypomania, when one is instead overactive and upward. However, most people who seek care do so during a depression which makes it difficult to detect the disease.
- What is important is not just looking at what you have in front of you. If a patient seeks for, or has depression, one should always ask if they have also had an elevated mood earlier in life where they are very active, over-irritable and maybe sleep very little.
According to Mats Adler, it is important that a person who is bipolar also gets the diagnosis.
- It can be absolutely crucial. We have relatively good treatments that allow you to stabilize the mood and many get "a completely normal life" or at least much fewer episodes.