FROM TEMPERAMENT TO MOOD DISORDER SPECTRUM

The assessment, management and treatment of mood disorders require careful observation of the signs and symptoms already in all disease states. Affective disorders are currently classified into well-defined diagnostic categories in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders – Fifth Edition (DSM-5) and in International Classification of Diseases – 11th Version (ICD-11).However, the complex symptom system that accompanies these disorders often poses a diagnostic challenge to clinicians. The risk of a superficial clinical examination is to focus only on some aspects of the mood disorder. Indeed, there is often a tendency to focus on the main symptoms of mood, depression and euphoria, excluding the wide range of phenomena that would lead to a more in-depth diagnosis such as, for example, bipolar disorder or mixed states (Tavormina 2021). In many cases, the “simple” depressive episode represents only a phase of the broader “bipolar mood spectrum”

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