The Symptoms of Bipolar Disorder in Children

Les Lehrer: I am Les Lehrer, MD I am a Psychiatrist and adviser in adult and in child and adolescence psychiatry and I am licensed to practice medicine in New Jersey and New York. We are going to talk about Bipolar Disorder. Now I want to make a point that the classic text book version of Bipolar Disorder is one in which there are clear depressive episodes, periods of wellness and clear episodes of mania that is the text and sometimes we do see people like that. Kids though do not typically do not look like that, they do not usually present with Euphoria and Grandiosity the most common single most common symptom of Bipolarity in children specially young children as they become adolescence they look more like adults but the single most common symptom is irritability extreme irritability it is an energized state just to make it comprehensible mania is high energy and you are full of life and spending fortune and spending excessively. Well in kids that energy seems to translate into your ability they also can have temper outburst that go on for more than 15 minutes this is a flat 15 minutes to now or this is not normal I mean when we loose our temper we loose our temper and it last for a minute or two or three or five may be ten minutes I am talking about loss of temper or screaming, cursing, throwing things usually doesn’t go after ten minutes but when it goes on for 15 minutes that is one of the most strong signals to me that what I am seeing is not a tension of disorder because they can look pretty similar. But Bipolar Disorder and also another distinguishing disorder characteristic is that the episodes are not truly demarcated often they mood shifting occurs within a day and may be-- energies ability and depression with in the same day. And that is a -- Speaker2: What is the youngest age you have ever seen person get practiced with Bipolar Diagnosis? Speaker1: By four years old but I thought she had a Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and that is pretty common we usually Speaker2: Differential beginning? Speaker1: The younger the child, the more difficult but the temper outburst are prolonged heavy outburst are real clue, that is. Speaker2: Does Bipolar conditions usually respond pretty well to certain medications? Speaker1: Yeah it often does it is difficult condition, sometime we do not get as greater result as we would like but we can usually make a real difference and sometimes it is a fantastic difference. Speaker2: As a Pediatrician I am not comfortable using lot of these medicines psychiatrists do because with a little subtle things you have to know wouldn’t you recommend for the psychiatrist so as to prescribe the medicine? Speaker1: Yeah this is an age specification I mean a psychiatrist – Speaker2: Thank you very much.