Bipolar Affective Disorder (Manic Depressive disorder) in Children and Adolescents

by James Chandler, MD, FRCPC

Bipolar Affective Disorder (Manic Depressive disorder) in Children and Adolescents 1

What is Bipolar Illness? 2

Mania 2

Hypomania 3

Hypomania  includes the same symptoms. However, they may be less severe or last only four days or more. 3

Examples of Mania and Hypomania 3

Bipolar depression 5

Examples of bipolar Depression 5

Signs of Bipolar depression (16) 6

Types of Bipolar Illness 6

Examples of bipolar illness in children and adolescents 7

Age of onset of Bipolar Illness 9

Prevalence of Bipolar illness 9

Causes of Bipolar illness - 9

Diagnosing Mania in Children - 10

Making sure you don't diagnosis something as mania when it really isn't - 10

Making sure you don't diagnose something else when really it is mania - 10

Co-morbidity 10

Course and Prognosis 11

Features that make another episode of mania less likely 11

Features that make another episode of mania more likely 11

Examples of the course of bipolar illness 12

How bipolar disorders screw up your life 12

Treatment 13

Medications 13

Older Mood Stabilizers (Epival, Lithium, Tegretol) 14

Lithium 14

Divalproex, (Epival) 17

Tegretol (Carbamazepine) 18

Second Generation (also called atypical) Antipsychotics 19

Risperidone (Risperidal) 19

Olanzapine (Zyprexa) 19

Quetiapine (Seroquel) 19

Side Effects of Second GenerationAntipsychotics 20

Newer Mood Stabilizers 22

Lamictal (Lamotrigine) 22

Topamax (Topiramate) 22

Trileptil (Oxcarbamazepine) 23

Neurontin (gabapentin) 23

Treating bipolar depression 23

Combining Medications 23

Weight Gain 24

Early intervention 24

Psychological treatments 24

Psychoeducational 24

Relapse Prevention 25

Working with families 25

Integration into the community 25

Treating substance abuse 25

Realistic expectations