To overview candidate clinical features that support a bipolar II diagnosis.
Methods:
Personal clinical and research-based observations are presented.
Results:
It is argued that clinical assessment should consider the nature of the depressive episodes as well as of the highs, search for a ‘trend break’ onset and a family history, and weight the absence of psychotic features in distinguishing the condition from a bipolar I condition.
Conclusions:
This review argues for bipolar II disorder as differing categorically from bipolar I disorder, and details cross-sectional and longitudinal clinical features found useful in facilitating its diagnosis.
DavidsonJ. Downing Street blues: a history of depression and other mental afflictions in British prime ministers. Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2011.
2.
ParkerG. Bipolar II disorder. Modelling, measuring and managing. 1st ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
3.
GoldneyRD. From mania and melancholia to the bipolar disorder spectrum: a brief history of controversy. ANZJ Psychiatr2012; 46: 306–312.
4.
ParkerG. Bipolar II disorder. Modelling, measuring and managing. 2nd ed.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012.
5.
ParkerG. The suprasensory world of bipolar II disorder. Am J Psychiatr2014; 171: 614–615.
6.
ParkerG. Clinical differentiation of bipolar II disorder from personality-based “emotional dysregulation” conditions. J Affect Disorder2011; 133: 16–21.
