In 1898, a detailed psychiatric case history was published about a 13-year-old that met Jean-Pierre Falret and Jules Baillargers criteria for folie circulaire, which is congruent to the modern conception of bipolar I disorder.In Emil Kraepelins descriptions of bipolar disorder in the 1920s, which he called "manic depressive insanity", he noted the rare possibility that it could occur in children. In addition to Kraepelin, Adolf Meyer, Karl Abraham, and Melanie Klein were some of the first to document bipolar disorder symptoms in children in the first half of the 20th century. It was not mentioned much in English literature until the 1970s when interest in researching the subject increased. It became more accepted as a diagnosis in children in the 1980s after the DSM-III (1980) specified that the same criteria for diagnosing bipolar disorder in adults could also be applied to children.Recognition came twenty years after, with epidemiological studies showing that approximately 20% of adults with bipolar disorder already had symptoms in childhood or adolescence. Nevertheless, onset before age 10 was thought to be rare, below 0.5% of the cases. During the second half of the century misdiagnosis with schizophrenia was not rare in the non-adult population due to common co-occurrence of psychosis and mania, this issue diminishing with an increased following of the DSM criteria in the last part of the 20th century. References
Bipolar disorder in children and adolescents: treatment and diagnosis: new treatment guidelines available. (2005). The Brown University Psychopharmacology Update, 16(4), 1+. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A130389603/AONE?u=mcc_main&sid=AONE&xid=5c0b7c9e
Mahoney, D. (2004). More studies on bipolar disorder sorely needed.
Signs and symptoms
In both the American Psychiatric Associations DSM-5 and the World Health Organizations ICD-10, the same criteria used to diagnose bipolar disorder in adults are used to make the diagnosis in children with some adjustments to account for differences in age and developmental stage. For example, the DSM-5 specifies that in children, depressive episodes can manifest as persistently irritable moods.In diagnosing manic episodes, it is important to compare the changes in mood and behavior to the childs normal mood and behaviors at baseline instead of to other children or adults. For example, grandiosity (i.e., unrealistic overestimation of ones intelligence, talent, or abilities) is normal at varying degrees during childhood and adolescence. Therefore, grandiosity is only considered symptomatic of mania in children when the beliefs are held despite being presented with concrete evidence otherwise or when they lead to a child attempting activities that are clearly dangerous, and most importantly, when the grandiose beliefs are an obvious change from that particular childs normal self-view in between episodes. Controversy
The diagnosis of childhood bipolar disorder is controversial, although it is recognized that bipolar disorder typical symptoms are dysfunctional and have negative consequences for minors with the condition. Main discussion is centered on whether what is called bipolar disorder in children refers to the same disorder than when diagnosing adults, and the related question on whether adults criteria for diagnosis are useful and accurate when applied to children.