|
||
 |
||
Collaborative Grants 
Psychiatry
| Physician Visits for Youth Bipolar Disorder Escalate Outpatient visits for children under age 20 diagnosed with bipolar disorder increased 40 times between 1994 and 2003 while visits by adults for the disorder only increased twice as much, says a new study from researchers in psychiatry. Though some studies have documented an increase in the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in young people, the new study is the first to show the trend is nationwide. “The prevalence of bipolar disorder in the community was nearly constant during this period. Either there has been a correction of historical under-diagnosis of bipolar in children, it is currently being over-diagnosed, or some combination of these two trends,” says the study’s senior author, Mark Olfson, M.D., M.P.H., professor of clinical psychiatry. “Without assessing the accuracy of the clinical diagnoses, we can not determine which of these hypotheses is correct.” Though little is known about how to treat bipolar disorder in children, the study also found that children were being treated much like adults, with at least one psychotropic medication. Dr. Olfson says more studies are needed to determine if bipolar disorder is accurately diagnosed in children, if the disorder in children is different from adult bipolar disorder, and the best way to treat children diagnosed with the disorder. The research was supported by the NIH, the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation, and the Spanish Ministry of Health. Arch Gen Psychiatry 64(9): 1032-1039 |
