Undertreated, undiagnosed

Blitz Bureau

FAILING to properly diagnose and treat people with bipolar disorder is wasting billions of pounds a year in the UK, according to a BBC report. Experts say many of the estimated million people living with this condition are “ghosts in the system”, whose lives are being torn apart by poorly managed extreme suicidal lows or manic, erratic highs. The report gives details of a woman identified as Emma who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in her early 30s, after experiencing a mental health crisis.

When she was 32 weeks pregnant, her grandmother died unexpectedly, sending her into a “deep low”. “I felt awful, but the perinatal team wouldn’t take me on,” she says. “They said my symptoms weren’t that serious.” When Emma gave birth, the extreme lows of her pregnancy were replaced by an unexpected high. She felt amazing in the days after her baby was born – but she didn’t sleep and her behaviour became increasingly erratic.

A few weeks later, her mood flipped again. When her baby was three weeks old, Emma took an overdose. It took a week in hospital for her liver function to return. But even after that, she was in and out of hospital for a year before finally being diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and medicated correctly.

“If I had the correct care, and been listened to during my pregnancy or even earlier, I could have avoided taking that overdose – 100 per cent,” she says.

It wasn’t Emma’s first experience of poor mental health – she’d spent her teens seeing doctors and receiving different antidepressants. No one had ever suggested she might have bipolar disorder. Experts have told the BBC how most people living with bipolar disorder in the UK are “undertreated, undiagnosed and left to try and survive in a system that has failed them”.

The majority who, like Emma, are eventually diagnosed with bipolar disorder, are incorrectly prescribed antidepressants initially, which makes their symptoms worse rather than better. Experts also say there is a lack of continuity of care from GPs through to psychiatrists. Their warning comes as data exclusively shared with the BBC suggests the cost of the condition in the UK is now an estimated £9.6bn a year. That equates to more than £300 per taxpayer.

This breakdown includes NHS costs, such as GP services, psychiatrist appointments and visits to A&E and hospital admissions. It also includes economic costs, such as lost days at work and the need for family and friends to take time off to provide informal care.

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