The Medicalization of ‘Ups and Downs’: The Marketing of the New Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Over the last decade or so, bipolar disorder, once considered a rare and devastating condition, has become one of the most widely diagnosed mental disorders. No longer denoting a severe and distinctive form of disturbance usually requiring specialist care, and often compulsory admission and treatment, the bipolar label is now applied to a whole gamut of human problems and general practitioners, family doctors and patients themselves are increasingly making the diagnosis and seeking and initiating treatment.