Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale
The diagnostic tool Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS) contains nineteen sentences and a rating scale. If a person is having symptoms of mood disorders, a mental health professional may use the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale to determine if the person has bipolar disorder.
The Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale was designed by Ronald Pies, M.D. and refined by S. Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., M.P.H. All variations and levels of severity of bipolar disorder can be detected with the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale.
Pies was motivated to design the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale after he had experience with many people who have treatment-resistant depression that was later determined to be undiagnosed bipolar spectrum disorder. Bipolar spectrum disorder is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) which is used to diagnose mental illnesses.
Bipolar spectrum disorder is used by some practioners to include people with bipolar symptoms that are not severe enough to warrant a bipolar disorder diagnosis according the the guidelines of the DSM. People who have some bipolar symptoms but not enough for an official bipolar diagnosis may be considered by some mental health professionals to have soft bipolar disorder or soft bipolar spectrum disorder.
The Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale has two sections. The first section has nineteen sentences that describe the main symptoms of bipolar disorder. The patient is to check the sentences that describe their feelings or behaviors.
The second section asks the patient to read the sentences of section one as a narrative that the patients must rate as to how well the nineteen sentence narrative as a whole fits their personal experiences. The first section is scored by awarding one point per sentence that the patient checked as matching their personal experiences.
The second section is scored according to how the narrative is rated by the patient. If the patient indicates that the story fits them very well or almost perfectly, six points are added to the person’s score. Four points are added if the patient says the narrative fits fairly well.
Two points are added if the patient said the story fits to some degree but not in most respects. If the person says the story does not describe them at all, no points are added to their score.
If the patient’s total score is nineteen or higher, bipolar disorder is considered highly likely. If the total score is eleven to eighteen, the likelihood of bipolar disorder is moderately probable. There is a low probability of bipolar disorder if the score is six to ten. Bipolar disorder is considered very unlikely if the score is under six.
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Written by Sheila Wilson on September 29th, 2009 with
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