Bipolar diagnoses on the rise among children
February 20th, 2008From the [Toronto] Globe and Mail:
A growing number of children in Canada, as in the United States, are being diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Kids as young as 7 are taking powerful cocktails of mood-altering drugs never tested in children, with side effects that include significant weight gain, blood clots and tremors.
Some see the spike as the natural consequence of recognizing a real childhood condition that was previously missed or misdiagnosed. Others say that childhood bipolar disorder is psychiatry’s latest fad — an overdiagnosis driven by fuzzy definitions, new drugs, eager doctors and anxious parents.
… There are no national statistics on the diagnoses of pediatric bipolar disorder in Canada. But nearly two million prescriptions for psychotherapeutics were filled last year at Canadian pharmacies to treat bipolar in children under 17, according to IMS Health, an independent firm that tracks prescription drug sales.
… In the U.S., children as young as two years old have received the diagnosis.
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