Bipolar Disorder in Children and Teens
Exams and Tests
There is no laboratory test to diagnose bipolar disorder. Doctors make the diagnosis through a combination of:
- A medical history, asking questions to help identify other past and present health conditions that could cause the symptoms.
- A family history to identify bipolar disorder, other mood disorders, or substance abuse problems in close relatives. (All of these conditions are linked to bipolar disorder.)
- A physical exam, which can rule out other conditions with similar symptoms (such as hyperthyroidism).
- A mental health assessment, which can help identify your child's current mental state and the severity of depression or mania.
- Other written or verbal mental health tests.
In young children, the symptoms of mania are more than just being a bother to adults and other children now and then. For example, many children can be silly and giggly to a point that it bothers their parents sometimes. This is not considered to be a sign of mania. But if a child is silly and giggly for several hours, several times almost every day, and this is interrupting the family's usual routine, then it may be a symptom of mania.
To check your child for mania symptoms, your doctor will use a set of guidelines called FIND.1 Your child may be diagnosed with mania if the doctor finds more than one symptom that is more severe than the FIND guidelines. The letters in FIND stand for:
- Frequency: Symptoms happen most days in a week.
- Intensity: Symptoms are severe enough to cause problems with teachers, parents, brothers, sisters, and friends.
- Number: Symptoms happen 3 or 4 times a day.
- Duration: Symptoms last 4 or more hours a day. This time may be spread out during the day rather than happening all at once.
Doctors check to see if a child's symptoms are more severe than the FIND guidelines. Also, more than one symptom has to be more severe than the FIND guidelines to be diagnosed as mania.1
Before prescribing medicine to treat bipolar disorder, your doctor will check your child for possible suicidal behavior by asking a few questions. See a list of questions your doctor may ask your child.
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| Author: | Jeannette Curtis Ralph Poore | Last Updated: May 14, 2007 |
| Medical Review: | Michael J. Sexton, MD - Pediatrics Lisa S. Weinstock, MD - Psychiatry | |
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