Healthy Skepticism Library item: 13677

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Publication type: Journal Article

Day M.
Drug industry is partly to blame for overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, researchers claim.
BMJ 2008 May 17; 336:(7653):1092-3
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/extract/336/7653/1092

Abstract:

Marketing tactics by the drug industry are contributing to a huge overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder, researchers have said.

A team from Brown University in Rhode Island says it has evidence that fewer than half of patients who were given a diagnosis of the disorder actually had it (Journal of Clinical Psychiatry www.psychiatrist.com/abstracts/oap/ej07m03888.htm). Their finding contradicts previous claims that the illness was underdiagnosed.

Lead researcher Mark Zimmerman of Rhode Island Hospital and Brown University, said: “There might well be some cases where the condition goes undiagnosed.

“But the results from this study suggest that bipolar disorder is being overdiagnosed, and, given the serious side effects that the treatments can cause, we need to be aware of this.”

The study centred on psychiatric outpatients who received a diagnosis of bipolar disorder at Rhode Island Hospital between May 2001 and March 2005. The researchers discovered that in fewer than half of . . .

Keywords:
PMID: 18483039 [PubMed - in process]