Study Reveals Today's Youths Are More Likely to Have Bipolar Disorder

According to a new study published in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, youths today are more likely to have bipolar disorder than they were in the past. In fact, the study found that youths are forty times more likely to have bipolar disorder than they were just ten years ago. That is a huge growth, significantly more than that of adults over the same time period. Why is this happening?

Bipolar disorder is a psychiatric condition. In the past, the same criteria for diagnosing bipolar disorder in adults was also used to diagnose the disorder in children. However, within the last twenty years experts have realized that bipolar disorder in children varies from that in adults. Sometimes it can vary greatly. Children with bipolar disorder often alternate between mania (an extremely elevated mood marked by unusual thought patterns and extreme energy) and depression (an intense state of sadness marked unusual thought patterns, low energy, and frequent crying). While many children alternate between the two extremes, others tend to alternate less frequently and stay more towards one end of the spectrum, particularly depression. Sometimes, children with bipolar disorder have no symptoms other than intense irritability. Youths whose parents have a history of the disease, other mental illnesses, or drug and/or alcohol abuse are more likely to get bipolar disorder.

In the study, researchers looked at data on youths up to age nineteen with bipolar disorder collected by the National Center for Health Statistics collected over a ten-year period. Researchers found that not only is the number of childhood bipolar disorder increasing, but it is increasing at an alarming rate. The number of youths with bipolar disorder went from 20,000 in 1994 to 800,000 in 2003. Experts would expect that since the number of youths with bipolar disorder is increasing, so should the number of adults with the disease. However, that is not the case. In fact, the growth of children and teens with bipolar disorder increased at a rate twenty times faster than that of adults during the same ten-year period.

Researchers also found some interesting data during the study. In adults, females are more likely to have bipolar disorder. However, the opposite is true for youths: Males are more likely to have the disorder. Moreover, the study found that children with bipolar disorder are more likely than adults to also have ADHD. Researchers also found that doctors are likely to treat children with bipolar disorder the same way they would treat adults. The majority of youths in the study were treated with powerful antipsychotic drugs. However, these drugs can have serious side effects, especially in children. There is no research that determines the long-term safety of the drugs for use in children.

The study reveals much but it also leaves many unanswered questions. Most importantly, why is this happening? Researchers and experts are divided on the answer. It is not known if the disease is truly becoming more prevalent or if it is being misdiagnosed. The diagnostic criteria for the disorder has changed in the last ten years so there is a possibility that that may have played a role in the findings. However, many crucial questions are still left unanswered. Experts agree that more research is needed. In the meantime, researchers are telling parents to always get a second opinion on the diagnosis and to consult an expert on the subject such as a child psychiatrist before deciding on treatment.

Source

WebMD Medical News

http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/news/20070904/1-decade-40-times-more-bipolar-kids