Bipolar

[istillbelieve]

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How do you find working with bipolar patients? It seems to be a very frustrating and challenging group of people to work with. A resident made a comment that it is challenging to work with people that lie so much. In my experience, I have not found lying to be a common symptom of bipolar. Opinions. Just wondering what you thought.

 

[QofQuimica]

How do you find working with bipolar patients? It seems to be a very frustrating and challenging group of people to work with. A resident made a comment that it is challenging to work with people that lie so much. In my experience, I have not found lying to be a common symptom of bipolar. Opinions. Just wondering what you thought.

Agree with you that bipolar patients aren't particularly prone to lying. When they show up to the hospital, they're most often severely depressed/suicidal. Especially if they're type II bipolar, they won't want to come in for a hypomanic episode because they feel good. The ones who get full blown mania do get brought in because they're disruptive sometimes, but the most common presentation of bipolar patients is still depression. What that resident was describing sounds a lot more like Axis II patients with personality disorders. They're very difficult to work with because they're manipulative and yes, as such, they do lie frequently.

 

[AlexMack12]

In general, the inpatient psychiatric population is a tough one to work with. Many times one will encounter people who refuse treatment, don't even believe they need treatment, and have life stories that range anywhere from heart-wrenching to terrifying.

I've worked with a wide range of psychiatric patients, and can honestly say I'll take ten patients with florid psychosis throwing chairs and threatening to kill staff over one with an Axis II component to his diagnosis (especially borderline personality disorder). I really can't deal with splitting, lies, manipulation, etc. I know it's part of their diagnosis but talking with them makes me hypertensive. 😛