Treatments For Bipolar Disorder
December 14, 2008 by rainier
Medicine Treatment
The drugs typically prescribed to bipolar children are the same used to treat adults–mood stabilizers:
* Lithium.
* Depakote (generic name valproic acid).
* Tegretol (carbamazepine).
or antipsychotic drugs:
* Thorazine (chlorpromazine).
* Haldol (haloperidol).
* Risperdal (risperidone).
* Zyprexa (olanzapine).
Each of these drugs potentially can cause side effects, which can range from dry mouth and weight gain to liver damage and suppression of bone marrow growth, so treatment should be carefully watched.
Many of these drugs have been prescribed to children for years (Depakote, for instance, is an anticonvulsant used to treat seizures), but it isn’t clear what dose is best for each child, at what age. Nor is it clear how effective these medications are for psychiatric disorders in kids, expert says.
Expert estimates at least half the children diagnosed with bipolar disorder will respond to treatment. The rest may need to try different combinations, especially since many have multiple conditions. Some children won’t respond to anything.
Intervention Treatment
Some successful treatment of childhood and adolescent bipolar disorder has proven to require interventions on several strategic fronts:
1. thorough and accurate diagnostic evaluation of the child. As bipolar illness in childhood is commonly confounded by multiple disorders, it is vital to the treatments success that all disorders be discovered and addressed. Many of these disorders can be helped with appropriate use of medications, such as mood stabilizers, antianxiety medications, antidepressants, neuroleptics, and stimulants. Also, individual and family therapy is often beneficial for the patient, and can specifically help with issues of family conflict, self-esteem, relaxation strategies, mood and anger control, and better communication.
2. evaluation of the school environment and its impact on the current situation. Very frequently school and peer issues can lead to and/or perpetuate an environment in which the child’s mood disturbances can take root and grow. It is important, therefore, that assessment of the school be done so that modifications to the demands placed on the child may be appropriately completed so as to best create an environment that fosters recovery while not unduly affecting the educational process. This usually involves the interaction of the school counselor, principal, psychologist, teachers, and parents. Some interventions include psychoeducational testing, speech and occupational therapy, in-school counseling, curriculum modification, resource classes, behavioral modification systems, ARD meetings, self-contained classrooms, and alternative placements.
3. evaluation of the home/parental environment and its impact on the current situation. Home life can also contribute to the development and/or continuance of a child’s or adolescent’s bipolar illness. Like school modification and intervention, family and home modification may be necessary to best create an environment that fosters recovery while minimizing the disruption to the family and child’s lives. Family therapy and couples therapy are often very useful in this regard, and can address issues of parental roles, parental modeling, interfamily conflict, better communication, behavioral reward systems, and defining family members’ roles and responsibilities.
4. Education (also known as psychoeducation) about childhood bipolar disorder and its associated illnesses, and nature and expectable course of the disorder(s), the importance and limitations of specific treatment modalities.
