Children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to research published by Hastings Center scholars Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health.
Parens and Johnston examine the evolution of the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and its dramatic increase since the mid 1990s. They emphasize that there is vigorous debate about whether symptoms in children accurately reflect the criteria for bipolar disorder, particularly for mania. The researchers support an emerging approach that would give many of those children a new diagnosis called Severe Mood Dysregulation (SMD) or Temper Dysregulation Disorder with Dysphoria (TDD).

Their findings, which were supported by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, come soon after proposed revisions to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) were opened to public comment. [continue reading…]