BD

Bipolar disease is one that has been on the rise in the past century. Data has indicated that 4% of the general adult population has or will have bipolar I or bipolar II at some point in their life. The major problem with this disorder does lie in the amount of time that passes from when the first symptom occurs to when a patient finally receives the correct diagnosis which can range from 11 to 19 years in some cases. But the more astonishing rate that relates to bipolar disease is the rate that children have been diagnosed in the past decade within the United States. In the past century, the diagnosis of bipolar disease for a child has been so rare that when it did occur, case studies reported the incident. Now, about 100,000 children within the United States has been medicated for bipolar disease. The more alarming fact about this fact is that even though the rate of children diagnosed has increased, it does not mean that it has been correctly diagnosised. The disorder is both under-diagnosed as well as over-diagnosed with the long term effects of medication for bipolar disease not quite known. So what will happen to all the children with the wrong diagnosis or none at all?