Survey of Expert Treatment Approaches for Children with Bipolar Disorder-not otherwise specified and Bipolar! Presentations

摘要

The intrinsic difficulties in studying and treating children younger than 10 years who have bipolar affective disorders were highlighted in the article by Post (see page 879). Currently, there are virtually no Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-ap-proved medications for children with pediatric onset bipolar disorder (PBD) who are younger than 10 years. This is in contrast to the nearly 20 FDA-approved medications for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), an illness with onset before 7 years. Existing guidelines for PBD suggest that mood stabilization with lithium, anticonvulsants, or second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) in PBD is the first step in treating mania prior to the use of adjuvant stimulant medications to treat comorbid ADHD.