Saturday, September 13, 2008

Still more Childhood Bipolar

Articles like The Bipolar Puzzle come out every so often am I'm not sure what the attraction among journalists but I'm probably too close to the problem space to be objective.

But these is a pretty decent article, if "you wanted to know what it is like" (of course there is stuff in there I haven't seen and there is stuff I've seen that isn't in there, but overall it rings true) if you don't have to deal with this stuff on a regular basis.

And if you do, I wish you luck on wherever you are on the terrible journey and the one word of advice I'd say is don't be afraid to think outside the box on the meds, meaning consider those that are typically verboten for "bipolar" children.

Low doses of stimulants and antidepressants in particular can literally perform miracles. And despite the risks, these classes are meds (stims and SSRI's) seem a lot less scary than mood stabilizers and anti-psychotics.

And near the end of the article, the million dollar question that parents of "bipolar" children never actually ask because you are living day by day and you don't have the luxury to ponder it all that often...

The most basic question about bipolar kids remains a mystery: Will they grow up to be bipolar adults? Because diagnosing the condition in children is still relatively new, no studies have yet followed a large number of them fully into adulthood. One fact is suggestive: bipolar kids are predominantly male, while the adult bipolar population skews slightly toward the female. The likelihood is that many of these kids will grow up to have mental-health issues of some kind, but which issues, and how chronic or severe they will be, no one really knows.

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