Mark Olfson, professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University, just published results of his study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, in which he found that “the number of children aged 2 to 5 who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed powerful psychiatric medications has doubled over the past decade.” (To read more about the study, check out today’s story from Reuters reporter Ros Krasny entitled “Bipolar diagnosis jumps in young children: study.”)

Personally, I feel this is appalling. Doctors are diagnosing children younger and younger, now even toddlers, and prescribing powerful prescription medications that haven’t been approved for children. Even worse, as Olfson points out, doctors often prescribe these medications as part of their initial treatment rather than exploring safer, non-medication alternatives first. As I state in my post “Bipolar Disorder Overdiagnosed in Children?” this trend needs not only to be stopped but reversed. In some cases, psychiatric medications are necessary in treating children, but only after trying safer interventions, and certainly not at the rate we are seeing at such a young age.

Please share your experiences and insights. Do you think doctors are diagnosing bipolar disorder too early in childhood?

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From Psych Central's website:
PsychCentral (January 15, 2010)

    Last reviewed: 15 Jan 2010