4 Troubled Teens Blog

The number of preschoolers diagnosed with bipolar disorder doubled in the past ten years, according to new research in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The number of children under 18 years old diagnosed with the disorder has increased by forty times over in the same period.

• About 1.5 percent of children ages two to five years old are now taking some kind of psychotropic drug, according to the new study by Dr. Mark Olfson, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University.
  
• These drugs may include antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, stimulants or antidepressants.
• Bipolar disorder, which involves severe mood changes, was once thought only to appear in late adolescence.
  

It is hard to diagnose psychiatric disorders in very young children because bipolar disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, sexual abuse and family dysfunction can produce similar symptoms.

Dr. Olfson said that physicians should prescribe drugs to preschoolers only after they have tried other interventions, "but that's not happening if you look at the billing records" from insurance and drug companies.

Labels: bipolar, mental_health, mental_illness

Posted By: Aspen/CRC