Bipolar Disorder With Anxious Distress

Bipolar Disorder With Anxious Distress November 20, 2019 Bipolar Disorder Overview Symptoms & Diagnosis Causes Treatment Living With In Children Your Rights Peter Dazeley/Getty Images Many people who are diagnosed with bipolar disorder also have other psychiatric conditions, including anxiety disorders. But when your anxiety doesnt quite fit into the definition of a specific, well-defined anxiety disorder, your psychiatrist might instead diagnose you as having bipolar disorder with anxious distress. Having bipolar disorder with anxious distress simply means you have bipolar disorder, plus anxiety that interferes with your life but doesnt meet the diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder. Overview Psychiatrists and other mental health professionals use the American Psychiatric Associations Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Version Five (abbreviated DSM-V) to attach an official diagnosis to your condition. In this case, bipolar disorder is the diagnosis, and with anxious distress is whats called a specifierâ€"an add-on to the diagnosis that clarifies it or elaborates on it. The specifier with anxious distress is actually new to the DSM with the fifth edition of that manual, which was published in 2013. It was added because mental health professionals thought it was needed in a variety of cases. According to the DSM-V: Anxious distress has been noted as a prominent feature of both bipolar and major depressive disorder in both primary care and specialty mental health settings. High levels of anxiety have been associated with higher suicide risk, longer duration of illness, and greater likelihood of treatment nonresponse. As a result, it is clinically useful to specify accurately the presence and severity levels of anxious distress for treatment planning and monitoring of response to treatment. Symptoms For a psychiatrist to add the specifier with anxious distress, a patients condition needs to include at least two of these symptoms: Feeling tense or keyed up.Unusual restlessness.Worry that makes it difficult to concentrate.Fear that something terrible may happen.Feeling like you might lose control of yourself. The symptoms have to be present most days of the current or most recent bipolar episode, regardless of whether the episode involved manic, hypomanic or depressive symptoms. In so-called anxious distress, severity of the condition is determined by the number of symptoms present: Two symptoms mean  the condition is mild, three symptoms mean  its moderate, four to five symptoms mean  its moderate to severe, and four to five symptoms with ?psychomotor agitation mean  its severe.? Someone can have bipolar I, bipolar II, or cyclothymia with anxious distress. Anxiety Disorders Are Also Possible Even if you have bipolar disorder with anxious distress, you also can be diagnosed with another anxiety disorder. If you get panic attacks, you can be diagnosed with panic disorder, and if youre acutely afraid of a specific object or situation (spiders or flying, for example), then you could be diagnosed with a phobia. When two or more illnesses not related to each other are diagnosed in a single patient, they are called comorbid, which simply means they occur together.