There are significant potential consequences of misdiagnosing
a bipolar disorder patient experiencing a depressive episode as
having unipolar depression and treating the patient as though he
or she is suffering from a unipolar depression. In general, standard
antidepressant therapy has not been shown to be effective in the
treatment of depression episodes in patients with bipolar disorder,
and treatment guidelines recommend using antidepressants only
as adjunct therapy to mood stabilizers for bipolar depression
(Goodwin, 2009; Yatham et al., 2013).