Category Archives: Bipolar Disorder

If this were your kid…

I’ll try to share some general answers to the “If this were your kid” question pertaining to medication on the basis of diagnosis and clinical presentation. Continue reading

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How long will my child need medication?

We’d like to think that medication can be a temporary tool to help kids through a rough patch of development. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes it’s not. Continue reading

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Are the medications prescribed to kids and teens with mental illness safe?

o…what safety concerns associated with medications approved by the FDA for use in kids should be of greatest importance to parents? I’d suggest there are two big ones…along with considerations associated with specific drugs Continue reading

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How well should medication work for my child’s condition?

Medication typically isn’t a panacea for kids and teens experiencing mental illness, and in general, the more serious the symptoms of mental illness experienced by children and teens, the lower the likelihood is that medication will lead to an ongoing remission of the child’s symptoms. Continue reading

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DSM-5: Emphasis on the EPISODIC nature of Bipolar Disorder in kids

During the latter decades of the 20th century, this contention by researchers that severe, nonepisodic irritability is a manifestation of pediatric mania coincided with an upsurge in the rates at which clinicians assigned the diagnosis of bipolar disorder to their pediatric patients. This sharp increase in rates appears to be attributable to clinicians combining at least two clinical presentations into a single category. That is, both classic, episodic presentations of mania and non-episodic presentations of severe irritability have been labeled as bipolar disorder in children. In DSM-5, the term bipolar disorder is explicitly reserved for episodic presentations of bipolar symptoms.
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Are they really depressed, or do they have something else?

One of the challenges I face as a clinician when a family comes to our practice because they suspect their child is depressed is teasing out all of the other possible explanations for why their child might appear depressed. Continue reading

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The Pros and Cons of Medication for Kids

We’re looking back at our ten most popular blog posts from 2012. Here’s #4… The widespread use of medication among children with mental health disorders is the ultimate “hot-button” topic in our field today. Undeniably, the use of such medications … Continue reading

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New Resource Page on Pediatric Bipolar Disorder

We now have a new resource page on the blog for church staff, volunteers and parents looking for information about spiritual development and strategies for inclusion at church for kids with bipolar disorder.
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The Pros and Cons of Medication for Kids

Bottom line…Medication in the hands of an appropriately trained physician can be one instrument God uses in responding to prayers for a child with a serious emotional or behavioral disorder. In the same way, God may use a physician who’s not necessarily a Christian to bring about healing Continue reading

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Pediatric bipolar resources for church staff, volunteers and families

Here are four resources I’d recommend highly to anyone looking to learn more about bipolar disorder in children and teens: Continue reading

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