Children of Bipolar Parents May
Exhibit Early Signs of Depression
Charnicia E. Huggins / Reuters 1nov00
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children of parents with bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depression, have a high risk of being diagnosed with a similar mood disorder in their later years.
Now, new research shows that symptoms of the disorder--characterized by periods of deep depression and excessive euphoria, interspersed with periods of normal behavior--may be evident in children as young as age 10.
``Specific manic or depressive symptoms may appear early in children at risk for bipolar disorder,'' according to Dr. Cesar A. Soutullo of the University of Navarra in Spain, and colleagues. ``Knowledge of early symptoms of bipolar illness may help earlier diagnosis and treatment.''
To identify warning signs of early-onset bipolar disorder in children, Soutullo and his colleagues compared 24 children with a parent diagnosed with bipolar disorder to 13 (''control'') children with unaffected parents. The children ranged in age from 4 to 17 years.
The team's results, presented recently during the 47th annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, show that early mood symptoms are significantly more frequent in the high-risk children of bipolar parents than in the control youth.
The high-risk children were more likely to display symptoms of mania (irritability, increased activity, increased speech); depression (low energy, withdrawal and irritability); and oppositional defiant disorder (defying rules).
In an interview with Reuters Health, Soutullo cautioned that care must be taken when considering treatment for such symptoms.
If a child displaying early symptoms of bipolar disorder is mistakenly diagnosed with depression and treated with antidepressants, the problem can be exacerbated--leading to a poorer prognosis, he warned.
``Antidepressants can make bipolar disorder worse,'' he said.
``We don't know if (the early symptoms) are going to identify those who will later develop the illness,'' he added, ''but they may.''