Smasharoo wrote:
So I just watched Frontline. It was about the increasing diagnosis of children as bi-polar and the resulting medicating of them off label with anti-psychotics, lithium, etc.
While I've argued before that these medications have real efficacy for a great many people, I'm largely of the opinion at this point that my kid would have to be pretty much stabbing me daily for me to go that route.
This trend where every child is apparently bipolar is disturbing, especially as it diminishes the impact and services available of those small percentage of children that are seriously mentally ill at a young age. Childhood Bipolar disorder, btw, are usually people whose behavior cannot be managed without medication and it is currently overdiagnosed which does not mean that the diagnosis itself is invalid(which might show up in the DSM-V--it's pretty controversial but I've met a few people working on that volume that have talked about possibly including it).
The only thing that complicates the whole picture, and I've heard this from people who work on the major NIMH study in about 20 hospitals where they are trying to prevent people with schizophrenia from having their first break, is that early diagnosis of mood instability and introduction of certain anti-psychotic medications may be having an appreciable effect on preventing the first break (on certain people whose profile would be similar to someone who would eventually develop schizophrenia). I know this from studying early indications of schizophrenia (being interested b/c my brother has the condition and began hallucinating at around 13) and for a large percentage of people, certain cognitive deficits and emotional instability is prevalent at a young age. However, it's not an exact science, still remaining a dilemma since schizophrenia, more than most other major mental illness, has catastrophic effects on someone's future development.
And in case you are wondering the relationship, a child with severe mood instability as a child (like truly meeting the criteria) is at more risk of developing schizophrenia than adult bipolar disorder, which seems to be unrelated.
Edited, Apr 10th 2008 10:32am by Annabella