Results Issued from Landmark
Bipolar Study on Children
United Press International - February 21, 2006
A multi-university U.S. study finds children and teenagers with bipolar disorder suffer from the illness differently than adults do.
Researchers found symptoms among children and teenagers last longer and swing more swiftly from hyperactivity and recklessness to lethargy and depression.
Psychiatrists from the University of California-Los Angeles, Brown University, and the University of Pittsburgh studied more than 400 pediatric patients as part of a study called Course and Outcome of Bipolar Illness in Youth, or COBY. It is the largest and most comprehensive pediatric study of bipolar disorder to date.
In their first findings, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, researchers report on 263 subjects aged 7 to 17 who were studied during a two-year period.
Also known as manic-depressive illness, bipolar disorder often begins in late adolescence or early adulthood, although it can develop as early as the preschool years.
The researchers found more than two-thirds of subjects recover from their first major manic or depressive episode during the first two years of follow up. The study also indicated subjects whose illness starts in childhood display more symptoms at follow-up visits compared with subjects whose illness began in their teens.
