About Juvenile Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder (manic-depressive illness) affects close to 1 million children and adolescents in the United States at any given time. Abrupt swings of mood and energy that occur multiple times within a day, intense outbursts of temper, poor frustration tolerance, and oppositional defiant behaviors are commonplace in juvenile-onset bipolar disorder. These children veer from irritable, easily annoyed, angry mood states to silly, goofy, giddy elation, and then just as easily descend into low energy periods of intense boredom, depression and social withdrawal, fraught with self-recriminations and suicidal thoughts. Recent studies have found that from the time of initial manifestation of symptoms, it takes an average of ten years before a diagnosis is made.

Bipolar disorder--manic-depression--was once thought to be rare in children. Now researchers are discovering that not only can bipolar disorder begin very early in life, it is much more common than ever imagined. Yet the illness is often misdiagnosed or overlooked. Why? Bipolar disorder manifests itself differently in children than in adults, and in children there is an overlap of symptoms with other childhood psychiatric disorder. As a result, these children may be given any number of psychiatric labels: "ADHD," "Depressed," "Oppositional Defiant Disorder," "Obsessive Compulsive Disorder," or "Separation Anxiety Disorder." Too often they are treated with stimulants or antidepressants--medications which can actually worsen the bipolar condition.

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About Juvenile-Onset Bipolar Disorder

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