Healthsifter by mary desmond pinkowish, since 2003

Long-Term Study of Bipolar Disorder in Children

Bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic-depressive disorder, is not a disease that children usually outgrow. That's the consensus of a team writing in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. ScienceNews is covering the study today, and it's worth a read. Kids who have severe symptoms at age 11 may be improved by the time they're 18 or 20, but they remain impaired by this disorder. The diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children has been widely disputed, but this study seems to demonstrate that bipolar disorder is a "real disease." The original research is available free of charge at the Archives of General Psychiatry web site.

Bipolar Disorder in Children

This is the cover story of the New York Times Magazine for September 14. You'll find harrowing stories about kids with this mysterious disorder, pediatric bipolar disorder. Here's a portion of the article:

"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. A long-term study in Pittsburgh overseen by Axelson and Birmaher suggests that as children grow, the severity of their disorders can change; bipolar II, the less severe form of the disease, can convert to bipolar I, the more severe form. Nearly a third of subthreshold bipolar cases (BP-N.O.S., or Not Otherwise Specified, in D.S.M.) convert to the more serious forms."

Author Jennifer Egan goes on to quote another expert who notes that some kids seem to recover, leaving questions about what exactly was wrong when they were younger. Fascinating.

Autism and Vaccines: Autism One Conference, Chicago

AMEDnews reports evenhandedly on the Autism One conference, which was held in Chicago over the Memorial Day weekend.One of the featured speakers was Dr. Andrew Wakefield, the British physician whose 1998 paper in The Lancet claimed an association between autism and the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism in 12 kids. But this is what's happened since then, quoting from AMEDNews:

"Every so often, a small study such as the one conducted by Dr. Wakefield comes along to buttress that belief. In this case, the momentum has held, even though 10 of the 13 authors on the 1998 paper published a statement inThe Lancet in 2004 retracting the original interpretation that their data indicated a causal link between MMR and autism, and Dr. Wakefield faces significant professional scrutiny."

That is, Dr. Wakefield is in danger of losing his license to practice. In June, the UK health authorities declared that measles is now endemic in that country and confirmed a recent measles-related death. In the US, measles rates are at their highest since 2001. It's more than spots: encephalitis and pneumonia are just two possible complications.

Damage done.

Bipolar Disorder In their Own Words

Today the New York Times web site has a wonderful audio feature with people who generously share their own experiences with bipolar disorder. Listen.