First, your doctor will need to rule out other physical conditions that may be causing your child emotional issues that hint at bipolar disorder. These other physical illnesses are the same as those evaluated in an adult’s medical history.
Once these have been eliminated as the cause, your doctor will consider psychological conditions. Even in adults, bipolar disorder is difficult to diagnose due in large part to the many mental illnesses that have similar symptoms. Therefore, in evaluating your kid or teen for bipolar disorder, or any mental illness, your doctor will be looking for a cluster of problematic behaviors or emotions your child may be having.
The bulk of the controversy in establishing a childhood diagnosis of bipolar disorder centers on which symptoms indicate bipolar disorder, as opposed to another disorder or even normal behavior, in a youngster.
There are essentially three schools of thought about how to approach diagnosing juvenile bipolar disorder. It should be noted, however, that there are countless variations and compilations of these three theories:
