Classification and diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder

Author: Vera Folnegović-Šmalc, Slađana Štrkalj-Ivezić, Ante Bagarić, Ninoslav Mimica
Abstract:

In medicine, like in most professional and scientific disciplines, individual entities (groups, categories) are classified into categories. If a professional or scientific discipline has categories that are well defined, then the classification is not difficult. However, if there are too many unknown parameters in a category, it becomes less specific; if subcategories are heterogeneous, the subordinate classification becomes heterogeneous too. Medicine classifies illnesses. Some of the medical specialities cannot classify illnesses, because an illness is defined by its aetiology, pathoanatomy and pathophysiology, natural course, clinical picture, therapy and prognosis. In psychiatry, most of these aspects are difficult to determine, which is the reason why psychiatric pathological conditions are called “disorders” rather than “illnesses.” In other words, psychiatry deals with diagnostic categories of the disorders, which are classified. Therefore, in psychiatry we talk about the predictive validity of the diagnostic categories rather than structural validity, like in infectology. Due to our insufficient knowledge of the structural validity, which also applies to bipolar affective disorder, classifications in psychiatry are open to frequent revisions. The one currently in use is the tenth version of the International Classification of the Diseases (ICD-10), and the next one (the 11th version) is already under way. 

Key words:
bipolar disorder, classification, depression, diagnosis, international classification of diseases


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