APA Bipolar Disorder Preview: What to Expect

This year’s American Psychiatric Association (APA) annual meeting will be held live in New Orleans, Louisiana, from May 21 to May 25, 2022, with a virtual component available June 7 to 10, 2022. This year’s meeting will feature 300+ education sessions with 50+ topics, including bipolar disorder.

“The APA meeting is a key meeting because it really reaches lots of psychiatrists, and behavioral health practitioners in our country and beyond. It was an honor to have our panels selected for presentation there,” explains Jair Soares, MD, PhD, professor and chair of Psychiatry Behavioral Sciences at UT Health Science Center in Houston, Texas, regarding his 2020 APA session on the challenges of diagnosing bipolar disorder. “What we wanted to do was something very practical around diagnostic and treatment issues related to bipolar disorder. So, do something very focused on the day-to-day clinical practice, something very applied and meaningful to the clinician who is on the trenches, seeing many of these patients.”

When Dr Soares was asked by Psych Congress Network if he felt bipolar disorder was over- or underdiagnosed, he stated, “It's probably both. There are still many individuals out there who do have it and are being called as having major depressive disorder. That has an impact on how they should be treated for best possible outcomes. So, in those cases it's been underdiagnosed. Then, you go through sadness and situations where any depressed person that has a little bit of mood lability is a little bit on the impulsive side and has some anxiety, and because of the anxiety, they may be a little more agitated. In that case, it's really overdiagnosed… I think the pendulum is shifting towards a better balance now in recent years, I believe.”

Related: Watch Dr Soares’ full interview

Dr Soares and colleagues will be presenting a session expanding on the notion of misdiagnosing bipolar disorder as major depressive disorder entitled, “Bipolar Depression: Outcome and Pharmacological Treatment” on Sunday, May 22, 2022, 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM CT. The focus of this session will be on the differentiation between diagnosing depressive disorders and including the correct medication therapy combinations in treatment.

Other notable APA sessions on bipolar disorder include:

• Advances in the Treatment of Mood Disorders: Problems and Promises—5/21 at 10:30AM CT

• An Overview of Bipolar Mixed States and Managing Medication Side Effects in the Treatment of Mood Disorders—5/21 at 10:30AM CT

• Does My Patient Really Have Bipolar Disorder? An Experiential Workshop—5/24 at 4:00PM CT