Researchers say bipolar disorder also afflicts children

Oct 13 2008

A study by researchers in the United States has found that bipolar disorder also afflicts children.

The researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say one clue in diagnosing bipolar disorder in children is recognizing grandiose behaviour.

Dr. Barbara Geller who led the study says children with mania grow into adults who have mania and bipolar disorder which is regarded as an adult affliction, also affects children.

In a study of 54 people with bipolar disorder, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), it was found that 44% of those who had manic episodes as children continued having them as adults.

People with bipolar disorder experience severe mood swings from deep depression to mania, characterised by excess energy and restlessness - between mood swings, many patients are symptom-free but severe cases have a risk of suicide.

There has been a degree of scepticism on the part of some experts that bipolar disorder even exists in children but increasing numbers of children are diagnosed as bipolar, a phenomenon that has been attributed in part to diagnostic confusion.

Certain characteristics of bipolar disorder, such as aggression or irritability, also are symptoms of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and other conditions and in order to avoid a mis-diagnosis, the researchers selected children who displayed not only irritability or aggression but also some form of grandiose behaviour suggesting a sense of invincibility - a classic symptom of bipolar mania in adults.

At the start of the study the children were between age 7 and 16 and were then tracked into adulthood - by the end of the study, 24 of the 54 participants had at least one manic episode after turning 18, a rate between 13% to 44% higher than in the general population.

Dr. Geller says children were not properly diagnosed in the past because physicians are trained to identify grandiose behaviour in adults but not in children and recognizing grandiose behaviour in children was a key to making correct diagnoses.

Dr. Geller says as children don't get married four times, over spend on credit cards, or buy real estate they can't afford, the childhood equivalent of these has to be found.

The research is published in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychology.