Mood, Trauma & Anxiety Disorders

Psychiatric Assessment & Treatment:

60 mins Consultation
Price : $750

Gap Payment: $558

Medicare rebate : $192 

90 mins Consultation
Price : $1200

Gap Payment: $1008

Medicare rebate : $192 

A GP referral is required

Clinical Assessment:

1 hour or 1.5 hours with Medical Practitioner, Dr Res

This section is included to explain where misdiagnosis can occur

Misdiagnosis of Bipolar Affective Disorder when it may be ADHD.

The principle difference is that ADHD symptoms are contextual and situational

, whereas bipolar symptoms are not triggered by any external factors. In a stimulating and positive environment, people with ADHD remain in a good internal state. 

If the environment is not stimulating enough, they can become bored or agitated. People with ADHD always experience life in this manner. Their sensibility and orientation toward the world is the same, even when they move through mood states of different intensities.

Patients with ADHD can more often control their feelings by changing their environment and stimuli.

Depressive bipolar symptoms, on the other hand, can feel like a dark cloud emerging from an internal emotional state. 

No situational reasons trigger these feelings of depression; patients just wake up feeling fundamentally different when depressed and not depressed

At RMC we have an in depth understanding of the difference in both presentations.  

Dr Lewis has a specialisation in the psychiatric treatment of combined ADHD and Bipolar Affective Disorder, and has 27 years of experience of psychiatric treatment of Bipolar 1 disorder and  Bipolar 2 disorder.   

An ADHD guide to Emotional Dysregulation & Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria

By Dr William Dodson Video

Bipolar was formerly called manic-depressive illness or manic depression.

Bipolar Affective Disorder & ADHD share 14 features in common.Two studies, the STAR*D program and the STEP-BD program, both found a tremendous overlap between the disorders. 

For clients with bipolar disorder, there is a 40% chance of having ADHD as well.   

ADHD: 

With adult ADHD, you see a very di!erent pattern; the moods of an individual withADHD are clearly triggered. The ADHD symptoms of rejection sensitive dysphoria, for example, is triggered by the perception that a person has been rejected, teased, or criticised.  

An observer might not be able to point out the trigger, but the individual

with ADHD can say, “When my mood shifts, I can always see a trigger.

My mood matches my perception of the trigger.” In technical terms, ADHD moods are “congruent.”

Mood changes are instantaneous and intense in individuals with ADHD, much 

more so than in a neuro-typical person.

ADHD moods rarely persist for more than a few hours. It is extremely

rare for them to last two weeks. Typically, the mood can be altered by

the person with ADHD finding a new interest or occupation that

captures their interest and distracts them from the intense emotion.

Bipolar Mood Disorder:

Unlike ADHD, bipolar is a classic mood disorder that has a life of its own separate from the events of a person’s life, outside of the person’s conscious will and control.   

Bipolar moods aren’t necessarily triggered by something; they just come and they stay.  Usually, the onset is very gradual over a period of weeks to months.  To meet the bipolar definition, the mood must be continuously present for at least two weeks and then its resolution must be gradual over a period of weeks to months.

Depression and anxiety are often the most visible coexisting conditions experienced by women who have ADHD. Both conditions can be present as separate disorders or as the result of struggling with undiagnosed or poorly treated ADHD for a very long time.  The two conditions frequently prompt women to seek medical and mental health care and can lead to a diagnosis of ADHD.

When treating a woman or girl who has ADHD and a co-occurring condition, the clinician or treatment specialist needs to address the condition causing the most difficulty at that moment, especially conditions that can be life-threatening if untreated.