Early Onset Childhood Bipolar DX

Hi Everyone,

I hope you are all well. I noticed there is quite a bit of info on here for adult bipolar, but haven't found anything much about childhood bipolar. Maybe I'm not looking deep enough.

My wonderful, loving 7yr grandson is at the moment in a childrens hospital and going through a battery of testing and medication changes. The Pdoc has dx'd him with bipolar, ADHD and OCD. He had a previous dx from the school pyschologist of ODD, PTSD and possible bipolar. My daughter and I question the ADHD since it presents very similar to bipolar.

I purchased 2 books for my daughter and I to read, "The Bipolar Child" and "The Ups and Downs of Raising a Bipolar Child". They were both very informative and helped my daughter to understand that she wasn't alone in what she is going through.

If anyone out there has any experience in this area, I would love to hear from you.

Thanks in advance for reading and/or posting! God Bless you all!

I too would wonder about the ADHD, at the present, cause of Bipolar having similar behaviours, but a Pdoc can be the one determine that,with his or hers evaluation. You can't go on the school psychologist's DX, though it can help, but a Psychiatrist should be the only one to make the final DX and set up treatment plans. I am mild Bipolar-II and mild ADD, my Pdoc stressed on treating the Bipolar and only that first, then after 6 yrs of stabilization,being on mood stabilizer, he allowed me to add Concerta for my ADD.
He prefers Concerta for Bipolar vs other formulations, it's timed released,so patient doesn't experience "peak and valley" effect, which is very crucial to Bipolar depression,in Bipolar-II's, well at least it was in my case.
Concerta is working fine along with my mood stabilizer, making my life more managable.
I am glad this child is getting this medical/psychiatric care, sadly young children with Bipolar and/or ADD, get or use to get marked as a "bad kids",never paying attention or too talkative/disruptive. It's a little better now, but I do not like hearing and seeing(I use to be a teacher's aide)kid's getting wrongly DXed as ADHD/ADD but actually are Bipolar, treated with the meds. not for Bipolar, it can mess the child up more. Oh well, I do not know if any of this helped. I just wanted you to know, one can have Bipolar as well as other disorders, combined, but many can be sucessfully treated with meds and/or talk therapy.
It's not cured but treated,stabilized, allowing someone to carry on their everyday life with least complications.
I wish you lots of luck,love and healing.

Rosanne

Thank you Roseanne for taking the time to comment on my post. I appreciate your effort and information.

The original dx from the school psychologist got us on our way to trying to understand my grandson's issues. The psychologist is a wonderful man, and he did a lot for my grandson and my daughter. But you are right, they psychiatrist is the major player in dx. As with you, I am stressing to the pdoc to medicate the bipolar first and foremost before trying to medicate for ADHD. I truly believe that once his bipolar behaviors are under control (as much as it's possible) we may not need to medicate for ADHD (at least at this time). The books we have read warned of how the meds for ADHD exasperated the bipolar and made things worse. This really scares my daughter and I.

I'm glad your meds are working out for you now. I'm sure it was a long and slow process, but well worth the effort in the long run.

Be well....be safe and be happy!

Bipolar Child is an excellent book, I see y'all have read that, the Dr. Papoulos (sp?) is an excellent psychiatrist, and has an older book out, that I have listed, though in the title depression may appear to be the main topic, it's really not, there is more info about Bipolar disorder,etc.
I have a feeling your grandson's pdoc, will take the approach my pdoc, and former one suggested, which is treat the Bipolar first, then the ADD.
My oldest brother, was DXed at 15 with Bipolar-I, males are more likely (due to testosterone) to experience more of the violent type/manic episode vs females,but not all do.
During adolescence,with hormones running wild, fuels things more.
Lithium therapy has worked the best for my brother, who is now 59, still takes it and now lower doses than previous years, it's an excellent medication, has the longest track record, and for most, non-sedating.
I opted for it for a short time, when I was being too sedated with the commonly used med.,Depkote,but due to extreme depressive episodes vs the very mild hypomanic ones, my pdoc switched me over to Lamictal, and it's worked well, I do not even need any anti-depressants while using this med.
Right now,I admit that I have become depressed,due to some heavy duty stuff I dealing with my sickly mom who has dementia.
This Wed. I see my pdoc,for my med monitoring visit (one every 6-8 weeks) so I hope he can help give me a "pep talk", and sign me up with a talk therapist in the group on the other side of his group's offices. If he thinks temporarily adding an anti-depressant to my regimen, I'll even go with that, or if increase in my meds is needed, I'll go with that too, I hate this horrible feeling,pre-menopausal doesn't help. My pdoc believes once that phase is all over, I may not need meds any longer but, hey, if I do I'm for it vs feeling horrible,miserable, is not worth trying to avoid meds for this is not worth it.
I really need something/someone to vent/whine to about this funk I've been thrown, it is probably best I start talk therapy like in the past.
Enough about me,I apologize, I got side tracked, which I do often, ha!ha!
I am sending you and your family positive energies,wishes for patience, and healing. It can be a long rode,but keep the faith, things will work out. Also,if you wish, come back, let us know how things work out.
Take care now,
Rosanne

Thank you Roseanne for all the information you have given me. It really helps to discuss my grandson's issues with someone who has been there done that ! Oh, and btw, feel free to ramble at me any time, I'm a great listener

I'm so glad to hear that your brother has managed his dx through the years and that lithium has been a big help to him. Larz is on depakote and seroquel at the moment. While in the hospital they have had the chance to work on the dosage of meds and get him to a point where he is able to work on "self directing".

I'm sorry to hear about your mom. How difficult it must be for you to see her going through dementia. Are you her primary caretaker? I'm so glad you realize you need to do some talk therapy. I pray it helps you quickly! Both my parents are gone now. Mom died of brain cancer in 1981 and dad of a heart attack in 1999. I cared for mom for about 6 months before she died, and making the decisions for her was excruciatingly difficult. But, I did the best I could...and I'm sure you will do the same for your mom.

I looked at the list of books you have posted. Thank you for posting them. I'm sure we will read a lot of stuff over the coming years. Right now, my daughter Amy is able to do more reading than me. I'm a home provider for a woman with developmental disabilities and I also work days as a personal support provider for folks with disabilities. My time is pretty fractured along with working on getting my husbands visa to come to the states.

Larz is going to be released on Thursday. We are very happy about that, and at the same time, we're concerned about his behavior once he is out of the hospital format. As always, my daughter will do the best she can for him, I have no doubts about that at all.

Take good care Roseanne. You are special! My prayers are with you!

Good news! Just a word of teeny caution,and no need for alarm, but have your daughter keep an eye on him, though I know she will, Depakote can be very sedating and cause weight gain, I hated it,my nephew as a teen was also put on it,and gained weight,got depressed and whole bunch of things one would think the opposite (depression area),my nephew started with suicidal ideations he had not had before Depakote,sure the med keeps you from mania,keeps you from anything, has potential for zombie world.
When I was in hospital for the same or sort of same thing your grandson went through, they kept me and monitored the Depakote, and Remeron(another med pdoc allowed me to stop immediately) so it needs to be watched,cause dosages get changed sometimes even after discharge date and follow ups.
I feel having this all done for a first time, being done at the hospital rather than home,was the best choice, just for the closer medical and psychological observation.
For me it was safer than starting at home, cause I drove a lot,far, to college every day,part time while being a mom when myy son would be home from school. I did have 2 incidents while still on Depakote, and lower dosage,where I fell asleep at the wheel, almost drove into the rocks that line the PA TPK., woke up just in time, and the 2nd incident was on a local road, the cars beeping around me woke me up. Soooooooooooo, I switched to Lithobid, and then switched to Lamictal a couple years later.

Okay, I'm not knocking Depakote, there are people that respond well, but it also is used more today,when first admitted or self-admitted to the hospital cause it takes less time for knock down, and the pdocs have more free time, I do not mean that like "free fun time", but time to go to the next patient hosp and office. They devote a little less time with having to titrate the med as closely as other excellent meds, like one of the first, greatest, Lithium. I mean this as no disrespect, but actually a few pdocs have told me that is why when admitted, they usually start Depakote vs the other tried and true meds.
Whatever, I do wish your family lots of luck with this.
Sincerely,
Rosanne

(((((((((( sabau2 and family ))))))))))))

I am classified as a "child" still even though I am 16. I have schizoaffective disorder now, but my original diagnosis a year ago was bipolar.

I think the most frustrating part of this, being in the child position, is the medication aspect. Its hard to treat children because a lot of the medications come with bad side effects or can't be used on anyone under 18. It was also hard finding a balance between who you can tell and who you can't tell without complicating things.

Anyways, if you ever want to ask me any questions, go right ahead! I might be able to help a little bit with the child aspect of things.

Thank you for commenting and sharing "girl" Sometimes getting the proper dx can be difficult. It seems that there can be so many overlapping symptoms and it makes the dx a very complex thing to work through. The pdoc mentioned in the beginning of Larz's admission that he was looking at schizoaffective disorder also, but did rule it out at this time.

I appreciate your offer of assistance and I'll bet I'll take you up on that before long! Thank you once again. You are in my prayers

You are so right Roseanne about the weight gain aspect of Depakote, and Seroquel too, I understand. We have noticed that Larz is constantly starving and looking for tons of carbs (another symptom of bipolar). So my daughter is making sure to have plenty of fresh fruits and veggies available and is hiding the junk foods. Luckily enough, Larz is quite thin and very active, so we plan on keeping him that way!

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend. Take good care dear!

(((((((hugs))))))

I would advice against the use of Risperdal... I gained 30 pounds on it (in one month) when I was on it. Seroquel wasn't so bad (5 or 10 pounds). I just remembered and thought I would mention it. I know when I gained the weight my self esteem dropped a lot and my depression was so much worse.

Good job for hiding the carbs, thats what my parents had to do too.

Isn't it such a shame that in order to take a med to help yourself, you end up with a crappy side effect. It just doesn't seem fair sometimes. Thanks for the heads up on the Risperdal, I will keep that in mind!