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

A new study found that European doctors are less likely to diagnose children with bipolar disorder than are their American counterparts. About one-fourth of European children with the disorder have delays in their medical diagnosis of up to three and a half years.

• Professor Immaculada Canales and her colleagues found that part of the problem is the difficulty in analyzing the symptoms of bipolar disorder in children.
• Symptoms can include irritability, behavioral disorders, lack of attention, hyperactivity, and depression.
• These symptoms are similar to other pediatric mental disorders.
• Children with bipolar disorder are less likely to show classic bipolar symptoms like euphoria and expansiveness that adult patients do.

Some studies have shown that 60 percent of adults with bipolar disorder had symptoms of the disorder before age 20.

Labels: bipolar

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, irritability, mental_illness

Three drug companies have asked the Federal Drug Administration's review board to approve the use of antipsychotic drugs for children as young as 10 years old who have bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

A June 5 Reuters article by Lisa Richwine and Susan Heavey provided the following details about the request:

The Food and Drug Administration is considering whether to approve AstraZeneca's Seroquel, Pfizer's Geodon and Eli Lilly and Co's Zyprexa for children and teens with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. All three are blockbuster medicines already sold for adults.

An FDA panel meets next week to make recommendations on the companies' bids to promote the drugs for children and teens.

Doctors can already prescribe them for children, but FDA approval would allow companies to promote the drugs, with combined sales of over $10 billion a year, more widely.

The request was followed by criticisms from organizations who are concerned about the effects of antipsychotic drugs on children.

"The studies done so far on these drugs provide almost no information about the long-term effects of them on children," said Diana Zuckerman of the National Research Center for Women and Families.

Labels: antipsychotic, bipolar, children, fda, medications, schizophrenia

A University of Colorado professor has received a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to design "family focused" therapy for young people who have bipolar symptoms.

Dr. David Miklowitz, a leading expert on bipolar disorder, will be working with young people ages 8 to 17 years old, who have risk factors but who may not necessarily been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

"One of the key questions we are asking is if you intervene early with family-focused treatment, do you actually delay the onset of the full disorder or perhaps reduce its severity once it has manifested?" Dr. Miklowitz said.

People usually do not undergo treatment until after they are diagnosed as bipolar.

Read more about Bipolar Disorder in Teen Girls at BoardingSchoolsforGirls.com.

Labels: bipolar, diagnosis, treatment_programs

Psychiatrist Candida Fink, MD, and Joe Kraynak, MA, have released a book titled Bipolar Disorder for Dummies (Wiley, 340 pages, $19.99). Developed as a practical guide to understanding, treating and living with bipolar disorder, the book offers an explanation of the brain chemistry that causes the disease, and discusses the latest medications and therapies available.

"It offers sound advice and self-help techniques that you and your loved ones can use to ease and eliminate symptoms, function in times of crisis, plan ahead for manic or depressive episodes and feel better. Topics covered include: diagnosis and treatment, selecting a mental health specialist, mood charting, managing employment-related issues, and how bipolar disorder affects children."

The sound advice and techniques offered in Bipolar for Dummies can help families navigate this often unpredictable disease, and help them do it together - rather than letting the disease tear them apart.

Learn about Bipolar Disorder in Girls.

Labels: bipolar, brain_chemistry, girls