Imagine this scenario: There are two patients. Both are 17 years old. Both are e
ID: 3443289 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine this scenario: There are two patients. Both are 17 years old. Both are exhibiting classic symptoms of depression. One is experiencing a Unipolar Major Depression. One is experiencing the depressive phase of Bipolar Disorder. They look exactly the same when you interview each of them for the first time. They are old enough to exhibit classic adult depressive symptoms. It is important to determine the diagnosis because the treatments are very different. What exactly would you ask these two people to help you determine each person’s appropriate diagnosis?
Explanation / Answer
Though there are researches which suggest that there may not be much differences in the signs and symptoms of unipolar as well as bipolar depression, yet these are different from each other. Therefore, differential diagnosis is a must. For doing this, it may be kept in mind that, substantiated by enough research, higher rates of psychomotor retardation, greater difficulty thinking, more early morning awakening, more morning worsening of mood and more frequent psychotic symptoms in bipolar depression is relative to unipolar depression.
Another important thing will be to keep in mind that not all depressions are exactly the same and therefore, a detailed analysis of features of the depressive episode will only contribute to accurately assessing the clinical picture of the depression.
Moreover, thought disorder or cognitive slippage and marked laxness in modulating emotion is more prominent in bipolar depression.
Thus, it may be concluded that the two individuals must be thoroughly checked to accurately differentailly diagnose the type of depressive disorder one is suffering from.