4 Troubled Teens Blog

Doctors should consider irritability as a symptom of bipolar disorder in children, according to a new study from Bradley Hospital and the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University:

• Dr. Jeffrey Hunt studied 361 children ages seven to 17 years old, when they were in the manic stage of bipolar disorder.
• He classified their symptoms into elation-only, irritable-only or elation-irritable.
• Only 10 percent of these children fell into the irritable-only category, and elation-only was 15 percent.
• The vast majority (75 percent) were in the elation-irritable category.

"Diagnosing children with bipolar disorder is challenging," Dr. Hunt said. "One of the chief controversies is whether irritability should be included among the criteria for the diagnosis because it can overlap with a number of other psychiatric disorders such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Our findings confirm that irritable-only mania is uncommon, but it does exist -- particularly in younger children -- and should be considered in a bipolar diagnosis."

The number of children diagnosed with bipolar disorder has increased dramatically over the last decade. Bipolar disorder is characterized by dramatic mood swings.

Dr. Hunt's study appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Labels: bipolar, mental_illness, irritability

Posted By: Aspen/CRC