Tonjanika Boyd
North Carolina Central University
Introduction
Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder are mood and personality disorder respectively, that have had many challenges amongst psychiatrist in differentiation. Not only does the two disorders share several symptoms and associated impairments, there is also continuing debates in the psychiatric literature about whether the two disorders actually represent different conditions (Hatchet, 2010). The following paper compares and contrasts Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorders and discusses implications of differential diagnosis of the disorders that can lead to long-term effects for the patient due to the fundamentally different treatment each disorder needs.
Comparison of Bipolar and Borderline Personality Disorder
Bipolar Disorder
According to the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorder, 4th edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR), bipolar is a recurrent mood disorder featuring one or more episodes of mania or mixed episodes of mania and depression (Antai-Otong, 2008). The bipolar disorders include, bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, cyclothymic, and bipolar NOS disorders. Bipolar I disorder includes one or more manic or mixed episodes, usually with a major depressive episode. Bipolar II disorder includes one or two major depressive episodes and at least one hypomanic episode. Cyclothymic disorder includes at least 2 years of hypomanic periods that do not meet the criteria for the other disorders. Bipolar NOS, does not meet any of the other bipolar criteria. The etiology of Bipolar disorder has been researched and documented for many years and has many theories and perspectives. Causative factors include psychodynamic, existential, cognitive behavioral and developmental and complex biologic and genetic factors (Antai-Otong, 2008). Signs and Symptoms (s/s) of Bipolar
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