Specifiers

Specifiers, in psychiatric diagnostics, are tags added to a primary diagnosis (such as bipolar II or other specified bipolar) to provide more detail about the current state or pattern of the illness. They allow doctors to move beyond broad categories and describe the specific nuances of an individual’s experience. Common specifiers include with mixed features, with rapid cycling, with anxious distress, or with seasonal pattern. By using specifiers, clinicians can acknowledge present subsyndromal symptoms that have an impact on a person’s life even if they aren’t the primary feature of the current mood episode.