Passage
Bipolar disorder (BD), often characterized by periods of depression and mania, although it is possible to experience mania only, is frequently misdiagnosed. Some studies suggest that as many as half of all individuals diagnosed with BD actually do not have the disorder. One possible reason is the similarity in symptoms shared by both mania and borderline personality disorder. Another potential reason involves recent efforts by pharmaceutical companies to increase awareness of BD symptoms. As one physician stated:"In the past ten years, we've been bombarded with ads, 'These are the symptoms of BD-they're easily missed-and here is a new drug to treat it.' I think that when you're constantly being reminded not to overlook something, you start looking for it everywhere, even when it's not there."Other studies report that BD is underdiagnosed, with almost 70% of patients receiving an initial misdiagnosis and almost 35% remaining misdiagnosed for 10 years or more. This can be partially explained by the fact that people often seek treatment for their depressive symptoms but rarely for their manic symptoms. In fact, some individuals may not initially realize that their manic episodes are problematic. Patients may describe these episodes as positive experiences, particularly when compared with depressive episodes:Patient 1: "During my depression, I'm so tired I stay in bed for days. I feel totally useless. But when I'm manic, I am so alive. I feel like I'm on top of the world-I'm the life of the party, and my mind is running a million miles a minute. I'm so productive, I don't need much sleep, and I can just go, go, go. It actually took me a long time to realize that this wasn't normal, this awesome energy was way beyond how people normally feel."Patient 2: "My mania actually came on over a long period during grad school and I just kept feeling better and better. It was like I was getting sharper and smarter, and I was doing more research and coming up with all of these brilliant ideas. I felt totally on top of my game."Because mania is often unrecognized and unreported, recent efforts have been made to encourage a more proactive approach to the self-identification of manic symptoms. Proper diagnosis is critical for effective life-long treatment and management of BD, as reflected by this patient's experience:Patient 3: "It was almost 10 years before I could acknowledge that my high-stress lifestyle was triggering my mania and that I needed to make some big changes-and that I needed to stay on my medication, even when I felt much better. That was really hard for me to get, but I get it now-I have this for life, and I have to treat it every day. Once I finally got that, I started to be able to accept this as a part of who I am."
T. Singh and M. Rajput ©2006 Matrix Medical Communications, and J. A. Scott and F. Sohrabi ©2015 Everyday Health Media.
-What does the physician's quote in the passage best exemplify?

Question

Passage
Bipolar disorder (BD), often characterized by periods of depression and mania, although it is possible to experience mania only, is frequently misdiagnosed.  Some studies suggest that as many as half of all individuals diagnosed with BD actually do not have the disorder.  One possible reason is the similarity in symptoms shared by both mania and borderline personality disorder.  Another potential reason involves recent efforts by pharmaceutical companies to increase awareness of BD symptoms.  As one physician stated:"In the past ten years, we've been bombarded with ads, 'These are the symptoms of BD-they're easily missed-and here is a new drug to treat it.'  I think that when you're constantly being reminded not to overlook something, you start looking for it everywhere, even when it's not there."Other studies report that BD is underdiagnosed, with almost 70% of patients receiving an initial misdiagnosis and almost 35% remaining misdiagnosed for 10 years or more.  This can be partially explained by the fact that people often seek treatment for their depressive symptoms but rarely for their manic symptoms.  In fact, some individuals may not initially realize that their manic episodes are problematic.  Patients may describe these episodes as positive experiences, particularly when compared with depressive episodes:Patient 1:  "During my depression, I'm so tired I stay in bed for days.  I feel totally useless.  But when I'm manic, I am so alive.  I feel like I'm on top of the world-I'm the life of the party, and my mind is running a million miles a minute.  I'm so productive, I don't need much sleep, and I can just go, go, go.  It actually took me a long time to realize that this wasn't normal, this awesome energy was way beyond how people normally feel."Patient 2:  "My mania actually came on over a long period during grad school and I just kept feeling better and better.  It was like I was getting sharper and smarter, and I was doing more research and coming up with all of these brilliant ideas.  I felt totally on top of my game."Because mania is often unrecognized and unreported, recent efforts have been made to encourage a more proactive approach to the self-identification of manic symptoms.  Proper diagnosis is critical for effective life-long treatment and management of BD, as reflected by this patient's experience:Patient 3:  "It was almost 10 years before I could acknowledge that my high-stress lifestyle was triggering my mania and that I needed to make some big changes-and that I needed to stay on my medication, even when I felt much better.  That was really hard for me to get, but I get it now-I have this for life, and I have to treat it every day.  Once I finally got that, I started to be able to accept this as a part of who I am."
T. Singh and M. Rajput ©2006 Matrix Medical Communications, and J. A. Scott and F. Sohrabi ©2015 Everyday Health Media.
-What does the physician's quote in the passage best exemplify?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

11ecba2d_0cd9_fd43_a3bf_dbf43cd9415b_MD0008_00 In psychology, heuristics are defined as mental shortcuts that allow for more rapid problem solving and faster decision making than algorithms (ie, step-by-step processes that guarantee a correct solution but can be time intensive). Although faster, heuristics are often less accurate. The two major types are the availability heuristic and the representativeness heuristic. The availability heuristic is the tendency to make decisions or base judgments on how easily something is recalled from memory. In other words, things that are readily available in memory are thought to be more common. The physician's quote describing heightened exposure to the symptoms of BD leading to a propensity to overdiagnose is an example of the availability heuristic influencing a decision-making process. The representativeness heuristic is the tendency to compare things (eg, people, events) to existing mental prototypes when making judgments. Mental representations (eg, nurses tend to be women) may cause one to draw a conclusion that is inaccurate, such as assuming that a woman in scrubs is a nurse instead of a doctor (Choice D). (Choice B) Belief perseverance occurs when one refuses to be influenced in the face of convincing evidence. In other words, the original belief is maintained despite new information to the contrary. There is no evidence that the physician is refusing to be persuaded. (Choice C) The overconfidence bias occurs when one's confidence in knowledge or abilities exceeds accuracy (eg, an individual who is sure of acing a test but actually receives an average grade). The physician does not indicate overconfidence. Educational objective: Heuristics are mental shortcuts that save time but are often less accurate. The availability heuristic is the tendency to believe that if something is easily recalled from memory, it must be common. The representativeness heuristic is the tendency to compare things (eg, people, events) to our mental prototypes when coming to conclusions.

Passage Bipolar Disorder (BD), Often Characterized by Periods of Depression and and Mania