I agree with the rush to diagnose bipolar these days, but the influence of pharma in this is obvious. Shifting the diagnosis made in 1% of the population to even just 3% increases the potential market 300%. And you see it in sponsored online ads where they ask, "Could your depression be bipolar depression?" and then push one of the atypical antipsychotics.

Regarding the trendiness of bipolar these days, 10-15 years ago when Duke's and Jamison's books came out in the popular literature we called it bipolar chic. The pharmas are just feeding into that now.

Exactly what I have been trying to put together in words, but have no ability to do so.
I feel, in my case, that it was a rush to load me up on Seroquel, due to having a manic episode and being on display for the doc with rapid speech, he wasted no time telling me to shoot the rapids and live well on Seroquel.
It puzzled me then and this is what has been bothering me. That I was given this "nuclear weapon" as you have called it here (great name for it)when a doc saw me one time.
Before that, I have managed quite well. The results of me being on Seroquel, have been less than desirable.
I feel it also was irresponsible on the doctor's part to just want to drug me up.
I am a creative person, a go-getter, a community activist, an advocate. All of these things require me to be able to function without a fogged mind or sluggish spirit.
In other words, doctors must stop medicating the hell out of our personalities that make us the unique individuals we all are, and that the general public adore. They love our artwork, our writings, our poetry, our music, our fun-loving spirits.
Why take those people away with medications that are sometimes not as necessary as people or doctors think.
I for one, would rather have my creative outlet left in tact, than to be snuffed out with a medication that leaves me flat, or zombie like.

What happened to the list of "who is bipolar so be proud of your heritage"?

Doctors now should print that off instead of handing out free samples of mind altering medications that ruin your spirit, and body all at once.

What's good for Big Pharma is good for the U.S.!

What you say is probably true across the spectrum: I can't help but wonder if the autism/PDD and ADHD diagnosis rates skyrocketing to epidemic proportions would at all correlate with a sales/revenue graph.

And MySpace, for god's sake Philip, it's the home of fucked-up weird bruised loners. I think that's their tagline.

MvB
Keep wondering about the autism/PDD dx=sales revenue.
Right on.

"Guess that's how we got from bp being one percent of the population to bp being anywhere from three to five percent, depending on who is doing the estimating."

I think the issue with this here, namely is because doctors too often misdiagnose those who are really bipolar with depression. I have been told for the past 10 years that I suffer from depression and for the first time, a psychiatrist has told me that I'm bipolar. After doing some reading and research on bipolar disorder and its symptoms/traits, I realize that I didn't just "suddenly" become bipolar - I've been bipolar all my life, since I was 9 or 10. And a lot of the things I've done in my life and many of the traits I exhibit are correlating to my "new" diagnosis.

I think the jump of bp in the population isn't necessarily so much that it's the fashionable mental illness to have, but that people who have been misdiagnosed are finally getting the correct diagnosis. It would suprise me to see the numbers jump up to 10 percent maybe 15-20 years from now as we learn more about mental illness and doctors start to know what to look for.