Bipolar disorder. hoping for a blood test at the general practitioner

Seven to ten years is the average diagnostic lag for patients with bipolar disorder. This serious chronic psychiatric illness is indeed often confused with depression, with which it shares some symptoms. Unfortunately, because of these misdiagnoses, antidepressants are sometimes prescribed. However, they are not appropriate for bipolar disorder. Worse, they may even worsen the disease by delaying the appropriate therapeutic management of the patient, resulting in the risk of suicide.

Therefore, speeding up patient identification is a necessity, and that’s exactly what P^r: Raoul Belzo, Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Montpellier and Psychiatrist at the University Hospital of Montpellier and Hospital Center Béziers. With his colleagues, psychiatrist Philippe Kurte and immunologist Nicholas Gleichenhaus, they worked for several years on the development of a blood test to screen for bipolar disorder;