Bipolar disorder (BD) is often regarded as an acute condition, mainly characterized by the presence of episodes of hypomania and mania. However, it is now increasingly clear that this condition: (1) tends to be chronic, with most patients that spend a substantial proportion of time with depressive or manic symptoms; (2) is often resistant, or partially resistant, to treatment; and (3) is often burdened by subthreshold symptoms that persist between one acute episode and another.
Furthermore, there is growing evidence that the prevalence of bipolar disorder can go well beyond the 1–2% prevalence that is usually attributed to this disease. Reasons for this underestimation include difficulties in making an early diagnosis and difficulty in making a differential diagnosis from disease such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorders, personality disorders, etc. In this collection of articles, some of the topics mentioned above are addressed, including:
The differences in the seasonal variations of symptoms, between patients with bipolar disorder and patients with major depressive disorder (Kong et al.);
Findings from a neuroimaging study on peculiar characteristics in some areas of the cerebral cortex of patients with bipolar disorder (Okamoto et al.);
The evaluation of the clinical characteristics of dissociative symptoms and of their impact on the clinical course of the disease, including. the response to treatment (Steardo et al.);
The differences between patients with bipolar disorder and patients with major depressive disorder in the brain white matter structure (Koreki et al.);
The clinical and neurobiological trajectories of children and adolescents with bipolar disorders and high-risk unaffected offspring (Paim Diaz et al.).
I am grateful to the Authors who contributed to this research topic and hope that the readers will appreciate and find their contribution useful for their clinical practice and research on this topic.
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Summary
Keywords
bipolar, assessment, diagnosis, symptoms, neuroimaging
Citation
Fagiolini A (2022) Editorial: Assessment and diagnosis of bipolar disorder: Volume II. Front. Psychiatry 13:1065442. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.1065442
Received
09 October 2022
Accepted
24 October 2022
Published
07 November 2022
Volume
13 - 2022
Edited and reviewed by
Trine Vik Lagerberg, Oslo University Hospital, Norway
Updates
Copyright
© 2022 Fagiolini.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Andrea Fagiolini andreafagiolini@gmail.com
This article was submitted to Mood Disorders, a section of the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.