What is an Atypical Bipolar Depression?
Sometimes a doctor or a psychologist will speak of an atypical bipolar disorder.
What he actually needs to say is an Bipolar disorder N.
O.
S.
This stands for 'Not Otherwise"specified'.
Off course this does not mean the depression is not as bad as others where there is a specification, but why do they call it not specified? Psychology does not have a very long history as it is just over 150 to 200 years old.
People always went to a doctor and even the first psychologists were actually famous doctors.
Because of the short history, not all disorders are specified as well as with medical disorders like cancer for instance.
Some 50 years ago the A.
P.
A made a book called the D.
S.
M.
It contains all symptoms and specifications that are needed for diagnosing mental disorders.
However there are many complaints and pitfalls with this book as it does not work for all people.
Some disorders are not specified enough and therefore some people will not qualify for a certain disorder.
Most disorders are divided in to groups and subtypes.
There are many types of depression and Bipolar is only one of them.
So when a person has a kind of depression, it is the task of the psychologist or psychiatrist to see what diagnosis fits best with the patient.
Most of the times this will wok out but sometimes a person will qualify for a Bipolar Disorder but not for one of its subtypes.
That is the reason why they made an extra group and called it not specified.
So it does not mean that you have a weird disorder if you hear your doctor say N.
O.
S.
It is just a lack of psychology that not every disorder is written down correctly and divided in to enough subtypes.
We have still much to learn and research will undoubted find a better way to classify diagnoses than the D.
S.
M.
What he actually needs to say is an Bipolar disorder N.
O.
S.
This stands for 'Not Otherwise"specified'.
Off course this does not mean the depression is not as bad as others where there is a specification, but why do they call it not specified? Psychology does not have a very long history as it is just over 150 to 200 years old.
People always went to a doctor and even the first psychologists were actually famous doctors.
Because of the short history, not all disorders are specified as well as with medical disorders like cancer for instance.
Some 50 years ago the A.
P.
A made a book called the D.
S.
M.
It contains all symptoms and specifications that are needed for diagnosing mental disorders.
However there are many complaints and pitfalls with this book as it does not work for all people.
Some disorders are not specified enough and therefore some people will not qualify for a certain disorder.
Most disorders are divided in to groups and subtypes.
There are many types of depression and Bipolar is only one of them.
So when a person has a kind of depression, it is the task of the psychologist or psychiatrist to see what diagnosis fits best with the patient.
Most of the times this will wok out but sometimes a person will qualify for a Bipolar Disorder but not for one of its subtypes.
That is the reason why they made an extra group and called it not specified.
So it does not mean that you have a weird disorder if you hear your doctor say N.
O.
S.
It is just a lack of psychology that not every disorder is written down correctly and divided in to enough subtypes.
We have still much to learn and research will undoubted find a better way to classify diagnoses than the D.
S.
M.
