There is a computerized questionaire that psychiatrists give to the clients that they suspect have this disorder. Therapists sometimes also use it but I don't know if they consider that an official diagnosis.

What I do know is that the therapist that ran the depression management group before my therapist would have the person from group meet separately with her and they would talk, verbally or by hand do a test. Then if that test came up as putting the person in the bipolar area then she would refer the person on to a psychiatrist to get the official doagnosis by doing a Comprehensive Psychological Evaluation with the psychiatrist.

The psychiatrist sends he computerized test out to be scored and the results come back between 2-4 weeks sometimes longer if the computer scoring place is back logged.