Babs,
I have BP1 and my brother who for some reason only has the symptoms of a first-degree relative: meaning he does not get manic, never has been hospitalized for anything mental, only had some depression in his 20's and does not self-medicate. However, he is intelligent and happened to get the gift (from BP) of creativity. He plays the guitar and is a vocalist and wrote the music and lyrics to his first CD.
Anyway, I mention my brother because he finally gave me a nephew 3 years ago (my brother was 45) and my nephew Danny has only a vocabulary of 10 words (one at a time seldomly heard), he is immensely into objects and the same DVD, no eye contact with anyone and he doesn't know who I am. Danny has never been to a Pediatrician or any other doctor at all. My sister-in-law is from Europe and does not care for our medical system and she plans on home-schooling him because she does not like our school system. They are in denial that he may have autism; although recently due to pressure from friends and relatives they said they will bring him to a speech pathologist in three months if he doesn't begin speaking. I read up on autism and recommended to my brother that he bring Danny to a pediatric neurologist. I'm currently reading "The Bipolar Child" and there is a section titled Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Bipolar Disorder. Under this section is mentioned 1) In many cases of autism the autistic behaviors are so dramatic that the possibility of a bipolar comorbidity (dual diagnosis) is often overlooked. 2) A Dr DeLong published a paper which reported on the family histories of 51 children with autistic spectrum disorders and found that 23 of the 51 children had a family member with manic depression. Another study had results of 29 out of 40. 3)The incidence of bipolar was 4.2%, about fivefold greater than that expected in the general population. Last, based on the experience of Dr. Edwin H. Cook, "My best guess is that 10 percent of the children with autistic spectrum disorder have a bipolar comorbidity" Dr. DeLong feels this may eventually turn out to be higher (more in the 35 percent range). It is bewildering to me that there is a correlation (I have 3 children non-autistic, but definitely bipolar, although I had my last child at 31). I met recently with an L.A.U.S.D. teacher who only teaches autistic kids and after telling him the symptoms of Danny, he said he's 90 percent sure he is autistic (My brother also is a L.A.U.S.D. teacher of history). When I told my brother about this teacher, he said he'd like to invite him over for dinner for a diagnosis. My teacher friend refused because he said he is not a professional and can get in trouble although he told me he would know immediately upon seeing him. Furthermore, he said it was due to my brother being older when he had Danny (his wife was 30) and that my brother should not have any more kids. He said that autism is on the rise because of parents waiting longer to have a child. I have not seen this particular reason for autism in any book or web-site. What do you think of that and can you give me advice about Dannny? Sorry for the bipolar detail. Thanks, Maureen