Bipolar disorder is most often identified in young adults, but it can occur in teenagers. It's rare but possible in younger children.
A: It is estimated that more than 3 percent of all children and adolescents have some form of bipolar disorder, which is about half the incidence in adults. The most severe form of bipolar disorder, bipolar I, affects 0.5 percent of all children.
Family History of Bipolar Disorder
A child of one parent with bipolar disorder and one without has a 15% to 30% chance of having BP. If both parents have bipolar disorder, there's a 50% to 75% chance that a child of theirs will, too.
It is a common misperception that children cannot have bipolar disorder. Although most people are diagnosed with bipolar disorder in adolescence or adulthood, the symptoms can appear earlier in childhood. Bipolar disorder is not the same as the typical ups and downs every child goes through.
Although bipolar disorder more commonly develops in older teenagers and young adults, it can appear in children as young as 6. In recent years, it's become a controversial diagnosis. Some experts believe it is rare and being overdiagnosed; others think the opposite.
A history of severe emotional trauma such as physical or sexual abuse can lead to mood swings, emotional outbursts, hallucinations, and extremely severe behavioral problems, including sexualized behaviors that can resemble bipolar disorder.
If one parent has bipolar disorder, there's a 10% chance that their child will develop the illness. If both parents have bipolar disorder, the likelihood of their child developing bipolar disorder rises to 40%.
Grandiosity and overconfidence. Easy tearfulness, frequent sadness. Needing little sleep to feel rested. Uncharacteristic impulsive behavior.
Children and teenagers with bipolar disorder have periods of time where they are extremely happy and energetic, called mania, and other periods where they are very depressed. Mania can cause children to make bad decisions and do things that are very risky. Bipolar is also called manic-depressive disorder.
About one in 10 children of a parent with bipolar disorder will develop the illness. Nine out of 10 will not. It's unclear why, but some people get bipolar disorder more easily than others do. The child is not the cause of the parent's bipolar disorder.
Diagnostic Challenge
One of the main issues in pediatric bipolar disorder is how to properly diagnose it. On average, it takes 10 years before bipolar patients are properly diagnosed and treated. For each year of untreated illness, bipolar youth have a 10-percent lower likelihood of recovery.
With symptoms often starting in early adulthood, bipolar disorder has been thought of traditionally as a lifelong disorder. Now, researchers have found evidence that nearly half of those diagnosed between the ages of 18 and 25 may outgrow the disorder by the time they reach 30.
Many of the symptoms of a manic bipolar episode and ADHD may be similar, such as distractibility, restlessness, or impulsivity. So ADHD may go undiagnosed in a person with bipolar disorder, if a doctor mistakes ADHD symptoms for a manic episode.
Bipolar disorder can be confused with other conditions, such as depression, schizophrenia, BPD, anxiety, and ADHD.
Signs of A Bipolar Meltdown
The extreme mood swings that occur in bipolar disorder are accompanied by changes in sleep patterns, eating habits, emotions, and behaviors. People with bipolar disorder can experience periods of mania and depression, and the timing of these episodes can be difficult to predict.
Bipolar disorder is primarily a mood disorder. ADHD affects attention and behavior; it causes symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. While ADHD is chronic or ongoing, bipolar disorder is usually episodic, with periods of normal mood interspersed with depression, mania, or hypomania.
being easily distracted. being easily irritated or agitated. being delusional, having hallucinations and disturbed or illogical thinking. not feeling like sleeping.
Bipolar disorder can cause your mood to swing from an extreme high to an extreme low. Manic symptoms can include increased energy, excitement, impulsive behaviour, and agitation. Depressive symptoms can include lack of energy, feeling worthless, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts.
The life expectancy for someone with bipolar disorder is approximately 67 years old. A 2021 study researched the effect of bipolar disorder on longevity and found that: risk of death is 2.6 times greater than the general population. the average life span is between 8–12 years shorter than the general population.
Childhood traumatic events are risk factors for developing bipolar disorders, in addition to a more severe clinical presentation over time (primarily an earlier age at onset and an increased risk of suicide attempt and substance misuse).
Studies conducted since then indicate that many adults with the disorder did exhibit symptoms in childhood. In fact, about 30 percent of adults with bipolar disorder report experiencing symptom onset before the age of 13. One study estimates an overall prevalence of 1.8% of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents.
Methylphenidate is a stimulant medication that is sometimes used as an antidepressant in bipolar adults and is frequently used in children with comorbid bipolar and attention-deficit disorder.
Bipolar disorder is a chronic mental illness with the peak age of onset between 20 and 40 years.
Bipolar disorder affects multiple structures in the brain, as well as the organ's function. Experts believe that bipolar disorder is associated with the smaller size of certain regions of the brain and with changes in the brain's chemicals. It can also cause changes in thinking and hallucinations.