[spoiltmom]

I ask this because my Psych says I'm bipolar. My oldest child has ADHD and now the pediatrician thinks my middle child has it also. Do ADHD odds increase with a bipolar parent? I plan to talk to my psych about this at my next appt but I thought I'd post it here as well.

[Marie67]

I honestly don't know that there's a connection of the sort you mean, but I've read recently in [I]The Natural Medicine Guide to Bipolar Disorder[I] that ADHD meds can trigger bipolar disorder later on. You might want to look for alternatives if you haven't already. There's some great literature on ADHD. You want the newest stuff you can get your hands on, preferably written by someone who has ADHD. I wish I could remember a title for you.

There are parts of one that look like the other, so there can be diagnostic confusion. Which is to say that someone could be thought to have ADHD which turns out later is actually BP. (I suspect this is why it might look like it was the meds causing it, when in fact it might well have been just a misdiagnosis of what was already there. This is simply a thought that occurs to me as at least as likely a scenario.

Sometimes people have both (just for extra confusion! ) I don't know. BP is the obvious one in my case, but it turns out I seem to have ADD as well. My son was dx'd ADD, and is just entering the years when BP is most likely to make itself more clearly recognized. So who knows? His ADD dx seems beyond question, but will it turn out he also has BP? Could. There have been things through the years that have made me wonder. I don't know, but neither will I be surprised.

I don't think there is a connection per se, outside of some shared symptoms that is.

What was the question again?

[heytheresunshine]

I am taking a class on learning diabilities, and we learned that ADHD and bipolar are often comorbid

[moremi]

Im diagnosed ADD and bipolar, bot of my kids are diagnosed with ADHD.

[krisakira]

when i was first displaying symptoms of insomnia and hyperactivity my pdoc thought it was resembling ADHD, but my new pdoc just diagnosed me with bipolar about a month or 2 ago

[blossom12]

ADHD and Bipolar often run in families and many agree are genetic. One pdoc told me they are found on the same gene but I don't know if that is a fact.
Both of my kids have ADHD. I am seeing bipolar in my teenage daughter and it scares the crap out of me but just watching it for now. ADHD and depression and bipolar are leaves all over my family tree. Those who are not formally diagnosed are the ones who drink.

[dazeofdolphins]

They are two separate diagnoses with different criteria and different presentations. Keep in mind, though, that there is a lot of cross-over in the DSM-IV (the diagnostic bible). So one diagnosis might look similar to another. For example, there is a lot of cross-over between bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. But, in the end, they are all separate. As a reference look at the differential diagnosis tree at the back of the DSM-IV for accurate information. Food luck!
dazeofdolphins

[tattedmommy75]

Originally Posted by spoiltmom

I ask this because my Psych says I'm bipolar. My oldest child has ADHD and now the pediatrician thinks my middle child has it also. Do ADHD odds increase with a bipolar parent? I plan to talk to my psych about this at my next appt but I thought I'd post it here as well.

I have a lot to say on this topic.

It's common for different psychiatric disorders to co-exists. There's research supporting the notion that Bipolar and ADHD like to hang together. After all, mental illness is dysfunction in the brain and neurochemistry is connected effecting different parts.

My pdoc told me something interesting after I questioned him on if I had Bipolar or ADHD with recurrent depression. He said ADHD is really a childhood disorder and an individual with it will outgrow the hyperactivity as an adult. The ADHD adult is left with ADD without hyperactivity. Therefore, those who are hyperactive are probably hypomanic and those who seem that way most of the time just run that way normally until a depression hits them. He also said many people with Bipolar are misdiagnosed with ADHD as children because the mood swings aren't so apparent at that age.

So your child with ADHD might have Bipolar that hasn't reared its ugly head yet.

Another note..

I strongly believe that ADHD is over-diagnosed in this country. I volunteered in my son's kindergarten class every Friday. 5 out of 20 kids in his class were diagnosed ADHD and they were all males. That's 1/4 which doesn't correlate with studies that show the percentage of the population with ADHD. Compared to the past, America loads children with more work earlier in age. They are forced to sit quietly for up to 8 hours in a day. Hundreds of years ago life was more physically active. Children helped parents with chores and farming. There was some education but a child wasn't forced to sit all day. They burned up their energy.

Our kids have too much energy and within the confinement they appear to be over-active. I read an interesting report that claims the ADHD mind isn't an illness; it's an innate way of thinking that benefited hunters in our primitive days. Those people who had a now labeled ADHD mind were the great warriors and hunters of their time. That would explain why ADHD kids get into so much stuff lol.

[cocoabeans]

Ritalin makes you sit sooo still yet feel so restrained.

Both can exist exist but, biggest difference? Adhd is constant.

[hamster-bamster]

Originally Posted by blossom12

ADHD and Bipolar often run in families and many agree are genetic. One pdoc told me they are found on the same gene but I don't know if that is a fact.

I do not think so. I read someplace recently, possibly even simply on Wikipedia, that the genetics of bipolar are very complicated and there is no single gene involved - many are.

[AniManiac]

I'm another double-diagnosis of bipolar with ADD. The ADD dx was easy - most of my immediate family has it too - but I think that delayed the bipolar dx because we always assumed my hypomanic symptoms were mostly ADD stuff. ADD and bipolar are two of the most inheritable mental conditions, and there are some similar neurochemical issues in both. For example, dopamine is a key player for both (a very complicated business, that particular chemical!) and norepinephrine can be implicated too - perhaps why Wellbutrin works well for a lot of bipolar people without the manic trigger effects, as it's a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor.

I do agree that it's overdiagnosed in young kids, who tend to have ADHD symptoms even under normal circumstances.

[Ortus]

Yes, when they talk about misdiagnosing bi-polar peeps with ADHD, it's typically done while in a hypomanic state when they come to the doctor complaining of irritability, lack of sleep, and/or racing thoughts. Of course they don't know they're in a manic/hypomanic state and the doctor might only see what looks like ADHD/ADD signs. But the ADD is *always* there manic, depressed, or neutral.

[sugahorse1]

I was diagnosed BP a few years ago, and only a few weeks ago, decided to add Ritalin and Concerta. It seems to be helping