Can you be diagnosed with bipolar disorder by your family doctor?
Can you be diagnosed with bipolar disorder without having to go to a shrink? It sounds crazy, but my health insurance doesn’t cover mental health. I have wanted to talk to my doctor about it for a while, but I have been afraid that she will refer me to a mental health specialist. I am not suicidal or anything, but I have a family history of manic depression and am worried that I am showing signs.
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Yes, your general doctor can diagnose bipolar disorder. It is always preferable that a complex mental disorder like bipolar be diagnosed by a mental health professional (psychologist or psychiatrist), but in your case where you can’t afford to be seen by a specialist, it is more important that you be diagnosed and start treatment than that you wait until you can afford a specialist. When you can afford to be seen, though, I would suggest that you are just to make sure the diagnosis is accurate and that you are utilizing the most effective combination of medication and psychotherapy to help you cope with the bipolar disorder. Good luck.
I would not trust my family doctor to dx or treat a mental illness any more than I would go to a psychiatrist for a general health problem.
Psychiatry is a specialty; a GP is not trained to dx and treat in this area. Our own GP’s admitted this to us. When my son’s psychiatrist left his practice, I needed to find a doctor that would continue to write his prescription. His first GP would not do it, the second GP agreed to do it because it was a maintenance drug for him (meaning that he had been taking it for a number of years).
A general practitioner is able to diagnosis Bipolar and provide treatment. It is better if you can see a psychiatrist but a good GP should be able to, just check if he or she is up to it as some do not have as much experience as others.
It is bizarre that insurance do not cover mental health as Bipolar and the like are illnesses like any other. It is discrimination 100%.
No a general practitioner should not diagnose or treat Bipolar. That’s like expecting them to treat coronary artery disease…. you need a specialist. Any decent doctor will refuse to treat you without at the very minimum you having treatment and diagnosis by a psychologist.