Psychological Medicine

Table of Contents - 2006 - Volume 36, Issue 09  


Review Article

Clinical and neuropsychological characteristics of child and adolescent bipolar disorder

ZOË A. KYTE a1c1, GABRIELLE A. CARLSON a2 and IAN M. GOODYER a1
a1 Developmental Psychiatry Section, University of Cambridge, UK
a2 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Sciences, Stony Brook University School of Medicine, New York, USA

Article author query
kyte za   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
carlson ga   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 
goodyer im   [PubMed][Google Scholar] 

Abstract

Background. The diagnosis of bipolar disorder in pre-pubertal populations remains difficult and often controversial. Consequently, the clinical and neuropsychological characteristics of mania in the child and adolescent years remain poorly defined. This review provides a clinical account of childhood and adolescent bipolar disorder and compares the neuropsychology and neuroanatomy of young BPD patients compared with adult BPD and childhood syndromes of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and conduct disorder (CD).

Method. Literature review based on Pubmed searches.

Results. Early- and adult-onset mania and BPD may share a common pattern of neurobiological characteristics despite developmental variations in the clinical presentation. In contrast, important distinctions are apparent between the child-onset syndromes of BPD, ADHD and CD, specifically at the neural level.

Conclusions. Disorders of affect dysregulation in childhood deserve closer neuroscientific and phenotypic scrutiny than given hitherto.

(Published Online March 28 2006)


Correspondence:
c1 Developmental Psychiatry Section, University of Cambridge, Douglas House, 18b Trumpington Road, Cambridge. CB2 2AH. United Kingdom. (Email: zak21@medschl.cam.ac.uk)

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