The Child Protection eNewsletter

Half of the kids labeled bipolar may be misdiagnosed…

A new analysis suggests there's been a huge increase in the number of U.S. children diagnosed with bipolar disorder, but experts question whether the surge is real and say some kids have been mislabeled. Read More Researchers looked at the number of times children under 19 went to the doctor and were diagnosed with or treated for bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. They found a 40-fold increase, from an estimated 20,000 visits in 1994 to 800,000 in 2003. The jump coincided with children's rising use of antipsychotic medicine.

The numbers echo other estimates suggesting as many as 1 million U.S. children are bipolar, but it remains a controversial diagnosis in children. That's partly because their symptoms often differ from adults', and because most powerful antipsychotic drugs used to treat bipolar disorder were approved for adults and have not been well-studied in children.

Some doctors believe bipolar disorder doesn't occur in children, and until last month there was only one drug approved to treat the illness in kids.

The study's lead author, Dr. Mark Olfson of Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, said the results likely reflect over-diagnosis now or under-diagnosis in the past, rather than a true increase. Olfson has received speaking fees from Janssen LP, which makes one of the pediatric bipolar drugs, and has consulted for other makers of psychiatric drugs.

Dr. Sharon Hirsch, a University of Chicago psychiatrist, said that while she is treating increasing numbers of bipolar children, she doubts there's a "vast epidemic."

More public awareness about mental illness, spurred partly by heavy marketing of psychiatric drugs, could have contributed to the surge. And early in the study, a leading manual of psychiatric illnesses expanded criteria for diagnosing bipolar disorder, Olfson noted.

Symptoms include extreme mood swings and disruptive behavior. In children, extreme irritability is sometimes the main symptom.

Bipolar disorder affects more than 5 million adults. The causes are uncertain but the disorder tends to run in families. Dr. David Fassler, a University of Vermont psychiatry professor, said research suggests that close to half of children thought to be bipolar may be misdiagnosed. He said parents should get a second opinion if they have concerns about a diagnosis or proposed treatment.

"Bipolar disorder is not always easy to recognize in children and adolescents. There's considerable overlap with other conditions, including ADHD, conduct disorder, anxiety disorders and depression," said Fassler, who was not involved in Olfson's study.

Dr. Thomas Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which partially funded the research, said the study "waves a flag saying we've got to do much, much better in finding ways to validate psychiatric diagnoses in children. This is an area that really needs hard science."

The study appears in the September issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

Meanwhile, Fox News reports that scientists are casting a wide net to find better treatments for the crushing depression and uncontrolled manias of bipolar disorder, and some approaches they're testing seem pretty surprising. http://www.foxnews.com/ Like skin patches that prevent seasickness. Or a drug that fights Lou Gehrig's disease. And then there's a newly invented device that resembles a hair dryer in a beauty salon.

Some of the strategies were identified by logic, and others by pure chance. Scientists already have evidence that they may someday prove useful against bipolar disorder.

Doctors yearn for better therapies to treat the condition, which can rip careers and marriages apart and drive people to suicide. It is so complex and mysterious that researchers haven't developed a medication specifically for it since lithium, more than half a century ago.

In other news… 

An 11-month-old boy was fatally beaten at a New Jersey home day care center, and authorities have charged a 9-year-old boy also attending the day care with the death and the center's owner with putting the child in harm's way. Read More Authorities said the older boy repeatedly hit Tahir Francis in the head a week ago, causing skull fractures. Tahir was taken to a hospital and died about six hours later while undergoing surgery. "I want to know what kind of home the 9-year-old comes from," Tahir’s father, Tafawah Francis told The Associated Press. "He doesn't understand, you can't do these things to a baby."

A registered sex offender from Granite City, Illinois who allegedly used the website MySpace to trade child pornography was charged with 26 crimes related to child pornography and sexual abuse of a child. Read More The charges stem from subpoenas issued this year by 31 state attorneys general in an investigation into registered sex offenders with profiles on MySpace, a social networking site popular among teens. The charges against Carl Courtright, 35, are the first child pornography charges to arise from these subpoenas, according to the office of Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

When Austrian authorities announced in February that they had uncovered an online child pornography ring, (Read More) pedophiles around the world suddenly became potential targets of criminal investigations -- but not the ring's 63 customers in the Czech Republic, where downloading and possessing such images is not a crime. Read More The videos, which show at least one girl who appears to be 5 years old and include on-camera scenes of girls being raped, are characterized by Austrian police as "the most brutal form of sexual abuse."

It may be something of a teenage nightmare: limits on when a wireless phone can make and receive calls and to whom, restrictions on text messages and talk time, and set allowances for ring tones and other downloads -- all at a parent's fingertips. Read More AT&T Inc., the nation's largest wireless carrier, will launch a service giving parents that kind of wide-ranging control on almost all of its 63.7 million subscriber lines. Several upstarts have tried tackling the market for limited phones, including Enfora Inc.'s TicTalk and Firefly Mobile Inc. which offer handsets for children. Disney Mobile, launched by The Walt Disney Co. in June 2006, offers many of the same functions as AT&T's new service, but parents must sign up with the carrier. Disney phones also include a GPS function that allows parents to physically locate their kids' handset, a feature not available from AT&T.

The Catholic Diocese of Marquette is requiring new clergy, as well as diocesan, parish and Catholic school employees and volunteers who have regular contact with children or youth, or are in a position to observe those who do, to attend an awareness session for the prevention of child sexual abuse. http://www.ironwooddailyglobe.com/0901dioc.htm The free session, called "Protecting God's Children for Adults," is being offered at various sites and on different dates throughout the Upper Peninsula from September 2007 to January 2008. Anyone who plans to work or volunteer with children or youth in the coming year and has not yet taken the training must take it.

An 8-month-old boy has died after his mother told police she accidentally cleaned his nose with a cotton swab used earlier to clean a methamphetamine pipe. http://www.foxnews.com/ Samuel Reta of Ontario, California was declared dead Friday at Loma Linda University Medical Center, according to the San Bernardino County Coroner's office. Reta had been in a coma since police responding to a child-not-breathing emergency call early Thursday found him in full cardiac arrest. The baby also has a fractured skull, broken arm and pneumonia, police said.

While CBS' "Kid Nation" is under scrutiny for its handling of underage performers, another broadcast reality series featuring even younger participants just wrapped production. http://www.tvweek.com/ Like "Kid Nation," NBC's upcoming "The Baby Borrowers" was shot in Idaho, a state with relatively lenient child-labor laws that eased shooting the series. The show is based on a U.K. program where teen couples who are considering parenthood test their caregiving skills. In three-day increments they're given an infant, then a toddler, a pre-teen, a teen and an elderly adult, creating a rapid simulation of parenthood.

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