Diagnosing And Treating Bipolar Children
For many years the psychiatric profession didn’t even believe there could be such a thing as bipolar children. Bipolar disorder, or manic depression, was described as an illness that emerged only in adulthood, even though some early researchers seemed to have evidence that some of the symptoms that adults exhibited had actually manifested well before they were ten years old. Yet manic depression treatment options were geared explicitly toward adults for many decades because of this belief. Bipolar information about both symptoms and treatments for children was scarce for a long time.
Things have gotten better to some degree; certainly the current treatments have greatly improved the situation. But another reason why it’s hard to treat bipolar disorder is that the symptoms tend to overlap with those of other disorders. For example, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may resemble bipolar disorder in its manic phase. Bipolar children with those symptoms are often diagnosed only because they are more aggressive, with more behavioral problems, than if they only had ADHD. With such overlapping of symptoms, what this means is that diagnosing the problem and finding the right medical treatments is very difficult.
Anxiety disorders can also be an indicator that doctors should watch for manic depression as well, since children with these disorders are more likely also to develop bipolar disorder. Children with bipolar disorder may often have had treatment already for full-blown depressive episodes, which served as precursors for the later illness. Even irritability and hypersensitivity might be warning signs, if they last for days at a time.
Diagnosis is controversial, though, because children with bipolar disorder are much more likely to be diagnosed in the United States than in other parts of the world. Interpretations vary on whether this is because there is simply over diagnosis in the U.S., or whether US doctors are simply recognizing a problem that really exists. Bipolar info and interpretation of symptoms varies considerably from country to country.
The treatment options available for manic depression are also likely to vary between countries. Yet it’s important to settle the question about diagnosis, because if this disorder truly manifests in bipolar children, it seems to be more intense for them than for adults. Some antipsychotic drugs that are used to treat it carry the risk of liver damage, heart problems or even diabetes. But not using the drugs could put the children at increased risk of psychosis, cognitive impairment or suicide. To find the best possible treatment for these children, a correct diagnosis is crucial.
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