SCID / structured interviews
Episode history with mania criteria.
Methods span structured interviews, mood charting, actigraphy, genetics, imaging and randomised trials of stabilisers.
Educational neuroscience context only — not medical advice, diagnosis or a substitute for emergency or clinical care. If you are in crisis, seek local emergency services or a licensed clinician.
Tools
Mood charts / e-diaries
Longitudinal energy, sleep and medication tracking.
Actigraphy
Objective rest–activity rhythms.
fMRI / MRS
State–trait network and chemistry probes.
Polygenic risk research
Population genetics — not individual diagnosis.
RCT networks / guidelines
Evidence syntheses for pharmacologic and psychosocial care.
Protocols
Prospective mood monitoring
Catch early warning signs before full episodes.
Stabiliser RCTs with active controls
Test efficacy and tolerability carefully.
Sleep-manipulation caution studies
Ethics-first designs around mania triggers.
Longitudinal imaging cohorts
Separate state from trait network change.
Limits
Retrospective mania recall
Patients may under-report elevated periods.
Imaging non-specificity
Overlaps with other mood and psychotic disorders.
Stigma & self-label
Internet labels are not clinical diagnoses.
Online quizzes are not diagnoses.
Sources & research
- Bipolar disorderClinical primer on bipolar disorder.DOI
- A critical appraisal of neuroimaging studies of bipolar disorder: toward a new conceptualization of underlying neural circuitryCritical neuroimaging synthesis for bipolar circuitry.DOI
- Evidence-based guidelines for treating bipolar disorder: Revised third edition recommendations from the British Association for PsychopharmacologyEvidence-based treatment guidelines.DOI
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