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Bipolar Disorder/antidepressants and bipolar problems

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Expert: - 11/11/2006


Question
I was diagnosed and treated foe depression for over 10 years. After getting into trouble during a manic episode, a court therapist discovered I was BP II. I later learned that antidepressants and BP II and harmful to the patient under most circumstances.  Do you know of any cases where this kind of misdiagnoses and treatment have benefited the patient in legal proceedings?

Answer
There is some data that suggests that people with bipolar disorder often go 10+ years before the correct diagnosis is made.

It is true that when antidepressants are given, without mood stabilizers, to people with bipolar disorder, that the antidepressants may induce mania or hypomania.

I have no idea how this would help when it comes to legal cases of any type.

Best regards . . .

Ivan
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Bipolar Disorder

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Ivan Goldberg, M.D.

Expertise

I am a psychiatrist/psychopharmacologist with many years of expereince in treating individuals with depressions, manic-depression (Bipolar Disorder), other mood disorders,. I am especially interested in the psychopharmacologic treatment of individuals with so called "treatment-resistant" syndromes.

Experience

I have been on the staff of the National Institute of Mental Health, Columbia's College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. I am currently in full-time private practice in New York City.

A.B. Johns Hopkins University
M.D. N.Y.U. College of Medicine

I am the creator of Depression Central:http://www.psycom.net/depression.central.html

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