According to the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, bipolar disorder was thought to be a disorder that only affected adults. However, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, which is the psychiatry industry standard for identifying mental disorders, includes pediatric bipolar disorder and adult bipolar disorder. Child patients can have both mania and depression symptoms. Adolescents can be diagnosed with any of the four bipolar disorders, though symptoms can become worse as the child gets older.
Symptoms
Bipolar disorder patients can have symptoms of depression and mania. Symptoms of mania include grandiosity, racing thoughts, being more talkative than usual, irritability, excessive distraction, decreased need for sleep, participating in risky activities, poor judgment, hallucination and psychosis. Depression, on the other hand, has symptoms that include thoughts of death and suicide, sadness, feelings of worthlessness and guilt, sleeping difficulties, and withdrawal from people and activities. In addition, adolescents who use medication to treat their depression symptoms are at a greater risk of suicide, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Bipolar I
Adolescents who have mainly mania symptoms are diagnosed with bipolar I disorder. As listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, adolescents with bipolar I disorder have either an elevated mood and three other symptoms, or an irritable mood and four other symptoms.
Bipolar II
Adolescents with bipolar II disorder, on the other hand, have mainly depression symptoms. According to the Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation, bipolar II disorder patients are often depressed, with in-between episodes of hypomania or normal mood. Hypomania is a lesser form of mania where the symptoms are not as severe.
Bipolar NOS
Bipolar not other specified disorder, or bipolar NOS, is a third type of bipolar disorder. Adolescents with bipolar NOS have severe mood swings that impact their quality of life, like other bipolar disorder patients; however, the symptoms of bipolar NOS do not fit into the descriptions of either bipolar I disorder or bipolar II disorder, and the doctor is unsure what type of bipolar disorder is developing in the adolescent.
Cyclothymia
Cyclothymia is a weaker form of bipolar disorder. While adolescents have mood swings that impair their lives, the symptoms are less severe than in other forms of bipolar disorder. However, cyclothymia can develop into full blown bipolar disorder when the adolescent is older.
