Clinical and phenomenological features in pediatric bipolar disorder

Retrospective studies in adults with bipolar disorder have reported that as many as 60% experienced the onset of their bipolar disorder before 20 years of age, and 10-20% reported the onset before 10 years of age. These findings make childhood and adolescence onset bipolar disorder more relevant as early recognition and intervention in psychiatric disorders have been increasingly important. Today, despite there is no doubt on the existance of pediatric bipolar disorder, there remains significant controversy about clinical and phenomenological features of disorder in children and adolescents. This review article aims to present and discuss clinical and phenomenological features of pediatric bipolar disorder in the light of current literature. We performed a search on Pubmed using keywords 'juvenile/pediatric bipolar disorder', 'bipolar disorder children/adolescents' and reviewed fulltext or abstracts of relevant articles. We also benefited from print books particularly the fourth edition of Lewis's Textbook of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. (Anatolian Journal of Psychiatry 2010; 11:60-67)