Psychiatric assessment of mood instability: qualitative study of patient

population (estimated at 13.9%) and is a common reason for referral to adult community mental health teams (CMHTs) with up to 80% of patients reporting this symptom at assessment. Very little is known about the experience of assessment within this patient group. There has been some limited research into the experiences of patients receiving one of the two common differential diagnoses in this group, namely bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. However, this previous work has focused on the experience of receiving a diagnosis and treatment services, rather than the experience of assessment per se. Moreover, by no means all patients who are assessed will receive a diagnosis. Understanding more about the patient experience of assessment in secondary psychiatric care could enhance communication between clinicians and patients, inform training and facilitate the diagnostic process. Given the exploratory nature of this research, we adopted a qualitative design and ‘framework’ analysis approach, which has been specifically developed for applied or policy-relevant qualitative research.