OVERVIEW

Depressed, Borderline, or Bipolar: Diagnosis and Treatment is organized by Professional Psych Seminars (PPS) and will be held on Sep 19, 2026.

Description:
Patients who remain mired in depression accompanied by irritability, anxiety, and distractibility are often not simply depressed. At least 40 percent of them actually have unrecognized bipolar illness. Antidepressants have been shown to be only marginally better than placebo in acute bipolar. They can cause or worsen irritable, agitated depression, increase the risk of suicide, and, paradoxically, lead to more frequent depressive episodes in those with bipolar illness. Effective psychotherapy often proves to be difficult, if not impossible, when bipolar patients are misdiagnosed as having major depressive disorder and inappropriately treated with antidepressants.

This seminar will provide clinicians with a four-part, clinical diagnostic method to distinguish patients with major depressive disorder or borderline personality from those with bipolar illness. Dr. Quinn will discuss the many ways therapists can help patients with bipolar illness with strategies drawn from empirically-tested psychosocial treatments. Clinicians will learn to recognize bipolar patients at the greatest risk of suicide, how to intervene to reduce this risk, and about the one medication that has been shown to dramatically decrease the risk of completed suicide. Finally, they will learn about the only four medications shown to prevent new episodes of mania and depression and learn why second-generation antipsychotics cannot take the place of these medications.

Dr. Quinn weaves together the latest research findings, clinical examples, video clips, anecdotes and much more into a dynamic presentation. Lively, entertaining, and chock full of information, this seminar will help clinicians immediately become better diagnosticians and therapists.

Objectives:

Describe the four lines of clinical evidence that must be assessed to distinguish bipolar depression from major depressive disorder and borderline personality
List key elements of empirically tested psychotherapies for bipolar illness
Identify the one medication that has repeatedly shown to dramatically reduce the risk of suicide
State why second-generation antipsychotics cannot be used in place of lithium and other mood stabilizers