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Saturday, August 13, 2011

More Bipolar Disease Mongering in a Respected Journal.

“The drug companies learned a while back that the best way to sell drugs was to sell diagnoses… selling the diagnosis is a way of opening up the new market. New diagnoses are as dangerous as new drugs, at least in psychiatry.”~ Dr Allen Frances, chair of DSM IV task force - Selling Sickness conference, 2011.

One of the main themes of both my book How Dysfunctional Families Spur Mental Disorders and this blog has been the incredible expansion of the bipolar diagnosis to anyone who is moody, chronically depressed and irritable, or chronically agitated. 

This has been done predominantly by some egocentric blowhard psychiatrists trying to make a name for themselves in conjunction with a well-documented and highly successful plan by several pharmaceutical companies to enlarge the market for their brand named, so-called atypical antipsychotics.  This marketing plan was documented with the release of Eli Lilly's own company marketing memos as part of a US Justice Department investigation - the so called Zyprexa Documents. These medicines are potentially toxic and do nothing to solve the interpersonal and psychological problems of many of the mental health patients to whom they are prescribed.

My colleague in Australia, Peter Parry, told me,  "Our director of training for psychiatry in our state quipped sarcastically that we may as well subsitute “mental disorder” with “bipolar disorder” and have the “DSM of Bipolar Disorders” and then recategorise subtypes like ‘adjustment bipolar disorder,’‘personality-based bipolar’ etc."  With some of the psychiatrists I know personally, this would actually be considered a good idea!

Many of the adults misdiagnosed with bipolar actually carry the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and not bipolar. While medication can help these folks with some symptoms, most of these patients are in dire need of good psychotherapy.  Unfortunately, a lot of therapists do not like to work with them, so many end up seeing psychiatrists who use antipsychotics basically to shut them up.

"Disease mongering" is a term used for marketing techniques designed to accomplish what Dr. Frances alluded to at the top of this post.  The ongoing mongering of bipolar disorder by the pharmaceutical companies uses many tricks.  Often so-called researchers and practitioners alike do totally inadequate diagnostic evaluations using highly inaccurate and misleading symptom checklists; others employ the completely unvalidated concept of bipolar spectrum, or b.s. as I like to call it.

Bipolar ver. 4.1

A highly transparent example of disease-mongering was just published in a respected psychiatric journal, the Archives of General Psychiatry.  521 hospital-based or community psychiatrists in 18 countries in Asia, Europe, and Africa between April 1, 2008, and April 30, 2009 were involved in a “research” project which was designed to shape their thinking and diagnosing, and altering diagnostic paradigms in those countries.



The article is titled “Prevalence and Characteristics of Undiagnosed Bipolar Disorders in Patients With a Major Depressive Episode” and was “designed, conducted and prepared” by Sanofi-Aventis. Sanofi-Aventis markets an atypical antipsychotic named Solian, which is the brand name of the drug amisulpride.  It is not FDA-approved in the United States, which is probably one reason why this study was done overseas.

The supposed "results" of the study:

“These results are from a large, 3-continent, culturally generalizable study conducted by practicing psychiatrists. The data indicate that, whereas with application of the DSM-IV-TR criteria, 16.1% of patients with Major Depressive Episodes met criteria for either bipolar I or bipolar II disorder, this rate rose to 47% with application of the bipolarity-specifier criteria.

These results suggest that bipolar features are more frequent in patients with MDE than indicated by DSM-IV-TR criteria. Almost half of the entire 5098 cohort presented the core symptoms of bipolarity (elevated mood, irritable mood, or increased activity), and these symptoms led to unequivocal changes in behavior that were observable by others in a similar proportion of patients.”

What this means is that, if this were true, half of patients who exhibit Major Depressive Episodes are actually bipolar and should  be taking “mood stabilizers.” Not lithium, I suppose, but antipsychotics. 

The article  goes on to state: “Major depressive disorder, the most common psychiatric illness, is often chronic and a major cause of disability. Many patients with major depressive episodes who have an underlying but unrecognized bipolar disorder receive pharmacologic treatment with ineffective regimens that do not include mood stabilizers.”

All of the "researchers" recruited received fees, on a per patient basis, from Sanofi-Aventis in recognition of their participation in the study. The key lead authors, all with significant Pharma connections, did not disclose their personal ties. Quite a transparent example of how cultural beliefs are manufactured, and how direct involvement with Pharma is normalised.

So what's wrong with the study?  Well that hinges on the meaning of the term "bipolarity specifier" that was added to the usual, DSM criteria for bipolar disorder.  This assumes that this additional test has been validated as being predictive of actual bipolar disorder, which is a "fact" not in evidence.  It sounds in the study as if this were an established and valid measure.

Here's the defintion:

“This bipolarity specifier attributes a diagnosis of bipolar disorder in patients who experienced an episode of elevated mood, an episode of irritable mood, or an episode of increased activity with at least 3 of the symptoms listed under Criterion B of the DSM-IV-TR associated with at least 1 of the 3 following consequences: (1) unequivocal and observable change in functioning uncharacteristic of the person’s usual behavior, (2) marked impairment in social or occupational functioning observable by others, or (3) requiring hospitalization or outpatient treatment. No minimum duration of symptoms was required and no exclusion criteria were applied.”

People sleeping less, talking more, and doing more. This is how mental illness is now being defined in psychiatry’s leading journal.

One of the dead giveaways that this article is bipolar diseases mongering is the sentence:
“No minimum duration of symptoms was required and no exclusion criteria were applied.”
This means that any person who has a suddenly angry, agitated, or elated response to an environmental trigger (like a big fight with a family member or winning the lottery) could be labeled bipolar.

This would also mean that if they had an episode of emotional dysregulation for the same reason, the reaction would be labeled a bipolar episode. This makes almost anyone who has borderline personality disorder suddenly bipolar.

23.2% of their subjects had experienced episodes of elevated or irritable mood triggered by antidepressants and were also defined as bipolar.  This is almost comical. Irritibility is a common side effect of drugs like prozac and has absolutely nothing to do with bipolar disorder (unless tranquilizers cure mania, because they sure do cure that side effect). This incredible nonsense is straight out of Hagop Akiskal’s dishonest playbook. I heard him say once that if someone who is depressed gets agitated on an SSRI, he just “knows” that person is bipolar.

The word bipolar, in the sense advocated by this piece-of-you-know-what study, is showing up in common discourse everywhere, particularly among young people describing their unpredictable and volatile classmates.  You can even hear the word in pop songs used as a synonym for moody (e.g. “Hot and Cold” by Katy Perry).

Someone... call the doctor
Got a case of love bi-polar
The drug companies have really done a masterful job in bastardizing the diagnosis of real bipolar disorder, which is a serious mental illness.  The harm to both the field and to patients alike has been staggeringly immense.

6 comments:

  1. David, another excellent expose. A few years ago, one could Google on overdiagnosis of bipolar and find nothing. Thanks to you and a few others, doctors, patients and the public at large are being rightfully informed of this travesty. Keep up the great work!

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  2. Dr Allen,

    I agree that there has been a massive increase in the number of bipolar diagnoses in a mere few decades, diluting the power and meaning of the original diagnosis.

    I have an alternate theory upon which I was curious if you could comment:

    ===>> for many "clients" of methadone clinics to continue receiving state benefits, a secondary diagnosis other than narcotic-addiction at a certain point some years ago became a necessity.

    Given the symbiosis between "clients" and methadone-providers, the path was carved neatly and efficiently for this new "dual" diagnosis, which (for convenience or consensus) was chosen most frequently to be "bipolar"

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  3. Dr. Bock,

    I do not deal with many methadone patients, so I have not personally run into that, but what you say does not surprise me in the least.

    I see hospital psychiatrists use the diagnosis because some insurance companies won't pay for hospitalization for personality disorders. That's one of the very few situations in which I sympathize with the insurance companies.

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  4. I am Bipolar. Diagnosed in 1999. I don't understand why they worry about diagnosing a disease they can't even treat. I'm sorry, I'm against ECT. I don't want to lose the best memories of my life. Or even the possibility of them. Every one makes light of my illness (who doesn't live with me and see it day in and out) because EVERYBODY is bipolar. I have a strong genetic fam history of Bipolar, when Dad was in mental ward in the 1960s before they even called it bipolar. My mom's brother has it along with his two sons. I've opted to not EVER have children for my fear of giving this burden, this stigma, and incurable nightmare. No medications have ever worked for me. The only thing that helps, is Lexapro, it helps keeps the lows from becoming soul crushing lows. It not for my huband who we learned together how to head off mania that can be avoided.... I'd be institutionalized right now. I am a lucky woman. And I'm speaking for the all the unlucky ones, LIKE MY DAD. They over diagnose this grave,severe illness that has a very high rate of suicide... Bipolar KILLS people. ant to to just reat it.. I don't expect a cure, but I wish they'd find helpful medications. Lifestyle help. instead of pushing on me every time I go in to try the brand new anti-psychotic. I say Obama Care is one foot in the right direction for giving us all health care. But debasing the currency of how so tragically serious this illness we call Bipolar is.... I mean a a guy I grew up with was bipolar but his parents refused to get him help as a teen, when it presents and held him back from treatment as a lost disabled adult man..... He killed himself last Jan. We need more real answers and less medications.

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  5. The world we live on is bipolar. Maybe it just needs more pills to calm down. Or maybe it needs more compassion. Hard to say really when dealing with such polarity.

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  6. Sick of Bipolar overdiagnosisMarch 18, 2024 at 5:34 PM

    100% true. Actual Bipolar I is a serious, genuine illness that causes chaotic mania with psychosis. Every other bipolar is either not an illness at all (eg. moodiness, irritability, medication side effects, so called childhood bipolar), or is simply depression. Of course, genuine physiological depression can be severe and chronic, and can also ruin lives. But it is not usually nearly as disabling as Bipolar I, and requires much less risky treatments. So many people get iatrogenically harmed by the side effects of “medications” after being misdiagnosed as Bipolar. And IMHO Bipolar II should not be a diagnosis, as it is either pure depression or social/personal/psychological problems or physical illness such as hypothyroidism etc. The whole concept of hypomania is ridiculous, it is pretty much just normal happiness. Most people get happy occasionally so to diagnose this as a disorder is so wrong, especially considering happiness is not even a problem of any kind.

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