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

Teens that struggle with depression and receive treatment from their primary care physician may not be getting the treatment they need. A study released by RAND Health showed that primary care physicians appropriately adhered to just one third of the 20 quality measures studied.

"The study also found that patients who received better-quality care reported fewer symptoms of depression up to two years after the start of treatment. The findings are among the first linking quality guidelines for depression treatment with improved patient outcomes in community settings."

While primary care physicians were good at diagnosing and initiating treatment for depression, their follow-up treatment was poor.

The Aspen Institute for Behavioral Assessment can provide a psychological evaluation, an emotional behavior disorder diagnosis, and a psychosocial assessment.

Labels: depression, diagnosis, treatment_programs

The number of kids seeking treatment for bi-polar disorder has increased 40-fold since 1994, according to recent surveys. Some believe that bi-polar has simply been misdiagnosed previously.

"'Given the preponderance of boys, their young age and the number of them also being diagnosed and treated for ADHD, all of these things are consistent with some misdiagnosis,' said Dr. Mark Olfson, senior author of the report and professor of clinical psychiatry at New York State Psychiatric Institute of Columbia University in New York. Factors such as irritability, rapid speech and distractibility are symptoms of mania in bipolar disorder but also of ADHD, he said."

Careful diagnosis is vital, not only for correct treatment, but to prevent treatment which may aggravate the condition. Antidepressants, for example, can worsen manic episodes in someone who's bi-polar.

Labels: bi-polar, diagnosis, misdiagnosis