Can a psychiatrist diagnose bipolar disorder in an hour?

Wow an hour seems impressive to me though I agree it probably depends on how you present and how much history they have on you. My pdoc specializes in bipolar and my intake was still 3 appointments over a week of 1 to 1.5 hours each time. Though my dx is BP2 with mixed features rapid cycling which maybe is kind of tricky?

Oh I will say also that I was diagnosed as having depression and anxiety for years (I had symptoms even in childhood, really) before finally getting the BP2 dx in my early thirties.

My psychiatrist on the unit diagnosed me the first day i was there and i never saw him after that for the time i was there in my opinion he was an asshole and i don't believe im bipolar cause he only saw me for five to ten minutes that day before he stormed out cause i refused to listen so i think he was bipolar

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I kind of got diagnosed within an hour but my pdoc just said that I was on the bipolar spectrum. I did talk about my past and previous moods. I also had someone send in some notes about some delusional episodes I had and stuff about my irritability.

I think he did settle down on a diagnosis but I forgot so I have to ask him.

Today I learned that they are moving away from labels! Hoorah!

My pdoc just did that with my dx. It's kind of cool because I don't have Bipolar 1 splashed all over my medical records; now it's Bipolar Disorder in partial remission, most recent episode unspecified. I still have the BP 1 dx from the hospital but it's no longer on my "active problem" list. Doesn't hurt my feelings one bit.