Are Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder the Same in Kids?
The Course and Outcome of Bipolar Illness in Youth (COBY) is a large research study supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH ). Research for this study has been conducted in a number of locations by different research teams. And the results continue to be supported and explored in greater detail.
One of the tentative findings in COBY is that children get irritable not manic. The latest report on this is that Irritability Should Be Considered When Diagnosing Bipolar Disorder in Children. If irritability is the hallmark episode of bipolar disorder in kids rather than mania, an entirely different set of decision factors will have to be adopted by the medical community. However, only 10 percent of the participants in this study were found to have irritable-only mania. “Jeffrey Hunt, MD, a child psychiatrist and training director at Bradley Hospital. ‘Our findings confirm that while irritable-only mania is uncommon, it does exist – particularly in younger children – and should be considered in a bipolar diagnosis.’"
Another research team led by Boris Birmaher at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center also reported additional information from COBY regarding a Four-Year Longitudinal Course of Children and Adolescents with Bipolar Spectrum Disorders. They found that kids tend to have episodes in which symptoms are subsyndromal – meaning they fall just short of the requirements for an official diagnosis. Also, children are apt to experience rapid cycling with episodes of mixed symptoms or just symptoms of depression.
Parents, what are your thoughts about these reports? Is your child primarily irritable or have you witnessed full-blown mania? What about rapid cycling? Leave a comment sharing your experiences. ~Kimberly
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Comments
my daughter had been diagnosed with ADHD, but when not on any meds, her moods seem to cycle rapidly, she can be really happy one moment and then very irritable and depressed the next moment. my pdoc has been keeping an eye on the possibility that she may be displaying symptoms of Bipolar since I am Bipolar myself. Today she will start a new med, if she is Bipolar,it will increase the irritability, if ADHD she will be tired from it the pdoc said. So time will tell
My son is diagnosed with ADHD and mood disorder NOS. His doctor is thinking bipolar and he is currently taking meds that treat bipolar….lamicital and ablify He is very irritable at times and its displayed often. One thing that makes the situation worse is that the ADHD medication vyvance has a side affect of increased irritability.
My son was diagnosed when he was 15 after a very turbulent few years, but by that time his irritability was the least of our worries. But if we had know signs beforehand it could have helped shed light on what we were up against. Even at a young age, he would overreact to the simplest comments, and you could never joke or play with him, he takes everything so personally. It wasn’t until he had a very negative reaction to starting medication for ADHD that his doctor started treating him for a bipolar disorder. Since then things are slowly starting to come around for him. But now that he is a teenager he is always irritable and moody- but there is a huge difference between the normal teen moodiness and the bipolar symtoms.
my intention was to leave a comment here regarding my 7 year old with bipolar. however, i stopped cold while reading a post that states, vyvanse has a side effect of irritability. my child started this drug 2 months ago. he is so irritable now and moody and sad. granted, he was bouncing off the walls before starting this, however, the bad outweighs the good. i am going to call the doctor but would like to say THANK YOU. sometimes its hard to see the forest thru the trees. i will be back. THANK YOU
My son was diadnosed with ADHD/bipolar disorder 4 years ago. It took almost three years to get the combination of meds right. He often cycled rapidly, and yes he was irritable often; only rarely manic.
Our 8 year old grandson, whom we are raising, has been in a residential treatment center (RTC) since December. He is being released in 2 weeks. We spent over two years going from one med to another, while he became progressively worse. Some days he would cycle up to 5 or 6 times an HOUR! One minute he would be laughing hysterically, the next he would be throwing anything in site, and the next minute he would be crying uncontrollably. It was horrible. He has been diagnosed ADHD and bipolar. As soon as he got to the RTC, he was started on Abilify. (He was already on Vyvanse.) Within a week, he was a different child. He just finished 5 good months in a public school in a regular classroom with glowing reports from his teachers. It truly is a miracle to think that he may be able to lead a fairly normal life!
I have a 15 yr oldwith a bipolar diagnosis,and he gets mania that is full blown.untill his diagnosis we thought itwas just the adhd.since hehas rapid mood swings, but his behavior cycles regularly. he will do great for a while then he will completely change. this has happened since he was 3yrs. old. i also have a daughter that i think is bipolar but she just has a mood disorder unspecified diagnosis. she has rapid mood swings but she doesn’t get manias she gets happy then depressed, then irritable, then violent, you never know what your going to see. my husband has a bipolar diagnosis and his manias are usually just nights without sleeping and intense irritability,withsome uncontrollable anger. he doesn’t get the rush of energy that is usually assoc. with mania.
so i say that there are different ways that bipolar afects people.
Stimulants are known to make bipolar worse. However, my 17 year old has taken them for years and cannot pass school unless he takes them.
He has been diagnosed with ADHD, conduct disorder, depression and most recently bipolar. He wasn’t diagnosed with the bipolar until I was diagnosed as bipolar. He also has substance abuse problems.
As a toddler, he would cry for HOURS when he didn’t get his way. Although he was generally sweet, he would occassionally fly into a rage if he thought someone was hurting me.
In grade school, although recommended for the gifted program, he started acting out. He jumped onto a table during class and started dancing. He snuck out of school. He started sneaking out of the house.
He has exceptionally poor judgement and will often do exactly what you tell him not to do and will get the exact results you said he would. These usually involve long-term suspension or legal action.
I have seen him absolutely giddy and in the depths of despair. He has punched brick walls, plaster walls, cut, then burned himself. He is very smart and funny. He is well-liked by many people, but he has bipolar and is unmedicated.
My son is 12, was diagnosed with ADHD at age 5, but very irritable. He was diagnosed with Bipolar 2 years ago. After the initial shock, we got him into with a better psychiatrist. He is very emotional, but is doing better on Ability and Prozac. It is so hard as a parent to know this is not something that will go away at some point. My son’s biggest issue is when he doesn’t get what he wants “right when he wants it” he goes into a rage.
We spent several years trying to diagnose my now 12 year old son. Originally he was diagnosed with adhd but every stimulant med made him have severe rage (worse than normal) as well as ticks. Finally around age 7 bi-polar was diagnosed lithium and all the various seisure meds either do not work or make his syptoms worse. Abilify did work for several years but what I want parents to know is that for no apparent reason it quit working several times, We would have to take him off and try something else as that ultimately would not work, then we would be back to Abilify within the month- and it would work then?! who knows why it even quits. I do want to share that adolescence has brought about a whole new problem and the abilify does not work now. He has been in 2 psych hospitals in the past 4 months and now we know that along with bi-polar and adhd he has pschitzophrenic affect disorder. Adolescence can bring on new symptoms in kids along with all the challenges they are already going through. For right now geodon (for extreme anger) and tenex (for adhd) are working, we just take it day by day. That is all as parents of children with mental disorders can do…live day by day and pray often.