How to Deal With Children With Bipolar Disease

Video Transcript

"I'm Dr. David Thomas. I'm a practicing psychotherapist with the Whitford-Thomas Group in Tampa, Florida to discuss how to deal with children with Bipolar Disease. I like to refer to Bipolar Disease in a more accurate way which would be Bipolar Disorder. For years we didn't tend to diagnose children with Bipolar Disorder. We didn't tend to see this disorder develop its onset until latter adolescence or early adulthood but in latter years we have been recognizing that Bipolar Disorder can be diagnosed with children in a much earlier age. The problem has been historically with diagnosing children with Bipolar Disorder is because it was often times confused with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity, Conduct Disorder as well as childhood depression so often times we focused more on those disorders as opposed to the Bipolar Disorders. Now how to deal with children with this source, because it is a medical condition psychiatric condition it is important to work very closely with your physician or child psychiatrist and not only in a medication regimen but in a behavioral regimen. Remember that Bipolar often historically known as manic depression is a disturbance in mood so often times how that mood is displayed with children is much different than it is with adults. Often times with children you will see a lot of acting out type behaviors and so it is extremely important to understand what drives that acting out and what you can do as a parent to be able to cope more effectively in the best interest of your child and again in dealing with childhood Bipolar Disorder it is extremely important to work closely with your psychiatrist or a physician in not just the medicine but as well as the therapy or cognitive behavior piece in dealing with this disorder. I hope this information has been helpful regarding dealing with childhood Bipolar Disorder. From Tampa, Florida, I'm Dr. David Thomas."