Wayward Moods: Bipolar kids travel tough road to teenhood
By Bruce Bower
Sufferers of bipolar disorder veer from periods of frenzied activity and euphoria to bouts of intense depression, two extremes often interspersed with brief runs of emotional calm.
The disorder affects roughly 1 in 100 adults, but almost no data exist for its prevalence among kids and teenagers. Now, a rare long-term study of school-age children diagnosed with bipolar disorder is showing that the condition strikes young people with particular ferocity.
Compared with adults, children in the investigation responded poorly to medicines and psychotherapy, say psychiatrist Barbara Geller of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and her colleagues. After 2 years of treatment, bipolar symptoms cleared up in only 26 of 89 kids, the researchers report in the June American Journal of Psychiatry. The rest of the youngsters never responded to treatment or improved only for a few months before relapsing. A greater proportion–but still a minority–of adults with bipolar disorder benefits from treatment.