Subthreshold

Subthreshold describes symptoms that don’t meet the full criteria for a formal disorder, specifically when there’s fewer symptoms — such as symptom count or duration — required for a formal diagnosis. Within the bipolar spectrum, this is often used to describe brief mood elevations. If a patient experiences three days of increased energy and racing thoughts, they are considered to have subthreshold hypomania because they fall short of the four-day minimum required for a BD-II diagnosis. Subthreshold is often used synonymously with Subsyndromal and Subclinical.