More lunacy at the APA meeting this week. Now there is discussion of whether Bipolar Disorder should be re-categorized as a Psychotic Disoder. Well, long term readers of the Drug Safety and Health News will remember my views on Bi-polar Disorder…

What are you so upset about? I told you I was Bi-Polar.

I’m not saying bipolar is a totally bs diagnosis. I am just saying it is way overdiagnosed.

Now it looks like I am going to have to become a candidate for Post-traumatic Embitterment Syndrome (Yes it too is being proposed as a new diagnosis at the APA, sigh) if the DSM Psychosis Work Group led by William Carpenter MD decides to move bipolar disorder into the psychotic disorders. I mean, there already is enough stigma associated with psychotic disorders. What are you going to do about the “bipolar II” people? Tell them they are psychotic too? And what about those four year olds with the bipolar diagnosis?”

Carpenter did say the shift would happen “over a few dead bodies” but that they “did want to get rid of schizoaffective disorder.”

Maybe the fact that Dr. Carpenter’s list of disclosures leads like a phone directory of the world’s drug companies might have something to do with this odd behavior. I mean, if it is a psychotic disorder, then people won’t quibble about giving antipsychotic drugs for it, right? Even if they do cause a 25% rate of akathisia.