Children and Bipolar Disorder Question

I just received an excellent question from Mike:

Julie,I love these blogs but I have an 8yr old girl with bipolar disorder and everything is about adults. Her anger just gets worse and worse and I don’t know how to teach her the stuff i read from you. the hcp has her on depakote and risperidal,please tell my wife and I how we can help her. I feel so bad that she has to feel this way.

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I will answer this question either tonight of tomorrow. I thought I had time right now,but I am off to a meeting to interview a potential speaker for the Latino Mental Health event that my friend Gayathri Ramprasad is doing here in Portland,Oregon.

The childhood bipolar questions are so important and I want to give this a lot of thought before I answer.

 UPDATE:I have not forgotten this question- I have just been in [ Read More ]





Children:From Bipolar to Pervasive Develpmental Disorder

I have a friend who has done everything possible to help his son find a diagnosis. The recent diagnosis was bipolar disorder. His son lived in a treatment facility for a year,went to a special camp in the country,learned more effective communication techniques and truly tried hard to fit in with his family. I have been amazed at how hard my friend and his partner have worked to find out what is happening to their child. The bipolar disorder diagnosis was a catch all- as it often is. It’s not that the diagnosis was wrong,it’s just that it was so vague.

Finally,some answers:My friend just wrote and said that his son has a new diagnosis that makes more sense. It’s called Pervasive Developmental Disorder. Here is what I just read in Wikipedia:**

The diagnostic category pervasive developmental disorders (PDD),as opposed to specific developmental disorders (SDD),refers to a [ Read More ]