Abstract
1/2025
vol. 4
Review paper
Bipolar affective disorder – the chameleon of forensic psychiatry
- Wojewódzki Szpital Zdrowia Psychicznego w Świeciu Regional Mental Health Hospital in Świecie
Personalized Psychiatry 2025; 4: e28–e39
Online publish date: 2025/04/04
Personalization is inherent in forensic psychiatric judgments. Experts provide opinions on a specific person suffering from specific mental disorders in the context of a legal problem that is individual to them. Forensic psychiatric opinions in bipolar mood disorders pose particular difficulties in judgments. The paper discusses the difficulties of forensic psychiatric judgments in criminal proceedings in bipolar disorder (BD). The conceptual scope of BD, the history of the term and Polish views on BD judgments are described. Attention is paid to the judgment ideology and the specificity of adjudicating in BD (changes in phases over a long period of charges, at different stages of criminal proceedings, reliability of data in less severe disorders, repeating forensic psychiatric examinations, the validity of forensic psychiatric observation and internment). The issue of simulation is raised. Adjudicating in specific clinical conditions and differential diagnosis of BD are discussed.
Keywords
bipolar disorder, psychiatric diagnosis, forensic-psychiatric evaluation, forensic psychiatry
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