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In recent years, children diagnosed with bipolar disorder became a hot topic in the media. Now, researchers are closely examining the increase in this diagnosis in children.
The scientific world has been unsettled as to whether the increase in diagnoses is real — or even whether the bipolar label is appropriate for children and young adolescents. Researchers performing family-study interviews have reported that childhood-onset bipolar disorder 1 occurs in the same families as adult-onset bipolar I disorder, despite age-specific comorbidities (e.g., 8-year-olds are not yet substance-dependent) (Arch Gen Psychiatry 2006 Oct; 63:1130). These family data, and several longitudinal studies of child bipolar disorder (e.g., Journal Watch Psychiatry …