According to the DSM-V, a person must now exhibit changes in mood as well as energy to classify for bipolar disorder. For example, a person would have to be highly irritable and impulsive in addition to not having a need for sleep. Changing these criteria helps to separate bipolar disorders from other illnesses that may have similar symptoms. The intention is to cut down on misdiagnosis, resulting in more effective bipolar disorder treatment.

This seems like a positive step forward to me. In theory (with the old definition) a change in mood such as becoming very irritable alone could be considered hypomanic (though, in realty, this could indicate a great many different things) whereas now there has to be a constellation of symptoms in addition to that (i.e. excessive irritability *and* little sleep but tons of energy, etc.).

Thanks for posting this, I didn't know about the change.