Early Signs of Bipolar Disorder...

There is presently an increased recognition that these patterns are being seen in younger children. For example, in 2003 a second international conference on Pediatric Bipolar Disorder, under the auspices of the National Institute of Mental Health, brought together close to 100 researchers, clinicians, and parents from the United States and other countries to share their work and experiences with bipolar children (Biederman, 2004). A third international conference will be held in 2005. The proceedings of the meeting included a number of papers and poster presentations on pediatric bipolar disorder including two papers on mania in preschool-aged children. Scheffer and Nikalas Apps (2004) studied 31 patients, ages 2-5 years and found that their symptom expression allowed for a diagnosis of bipolar disorder according to DSM-IV criteria. These children were effectively treated with mood stabilizers, and had significant developmental benefits.

Dilsaver and Akiskal (2004) studied a group of children presenting in a community mental health clinic over a 24-month period. The children were younger than five years of age. Using a structured clinical interview, the researchers found that there was a surprisingly high incidence of mania with classical features in this population. Mania in this population appeared to be strongly linked to the presence of familial affective illness.

Tumuluru et al (2004) reported on the case histories of 6 preschool children ages 3-5 years who were obtained from a sample of 36 consecutively hospitalized preschool children, i.e., 17% of the group were diagnosed as bipolar. All of the children had irritable moods, a strong family history of affective illness, and previous presentation with symptoms of attention deficit disorder.