Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale
Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale (BSDS) is a diagnostic tool that contains nineteen questions. The Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale is used to determine if someone with symptoms of a mood disorder has bipolar disorder.
The Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale was designed by Ronald Pies, M.D. and refined by S. Nassir Ghaemi, M.D., M.P.H. All variations and levels of severity of bipolar disorder can be detected with the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale.
Pies was motivated to create the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale after he had worked with several people who were labeled as having "treatment-resistant depression" only to discover they actually had bipolar spectrum disorder or mild bipolar disorder. Bipolar spectrum disorder is not an official diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) which is used by mental health professionals to diagnose psychiatric disorders.
Bipolar spectrum disorder is used by some practioners to include people with bipolar symptoms that are not severe enough to warrant a bipolar disorder diagnosis according the the guidelines of the DSM. People who have some bipolar symptoms but not enough for an official bipolar diagnosis may be considered by some mental health professionals to have soft bipolar disorder or soft bipolar spectrum disorder.
There are two sections to the Bipolar Spectrum Diagnostic Scale. The first section consists of nineteen sentences that describe the primary symptoms of bipolar disorder. The first section is completed when the patient has checked the sentences that describe their feelings or behaviors.
The second section asks the patient to read the sentences of section one as a narrative that the patients must rate as to how well the nineteen sentence narrative as a whole fits their personal experiences. The first section is scored by awarding one point per sentence that the patient checked as matching their personal experiences.
The score of the second section is based on how the collection of sentences of section one is rated as a whole by the patient. If the patient rated the story as fitting them very well or almost perfectly, six points are added to the person's score. Four points are added if the patient rated the collection of sentences as fitting their experiences fairly well.
Two points are added if the patient's rating is that the story fits to some degree but not in most respects. No points are added to the patient's score if the person says the story does not describe them at all.
If the patient's total score is nineteen or higher, bipolar disorder is considered highly likely. If the total score is eleven to eighteen, the likelihood of bipolar disorder is moderately probable. There is a low probability of bipolar disorder if the score is six to ten. Bipolar disorder is considered very unlikely if the score is under six.
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