An irritable child will exhibit bouts of moody behavior, no exceptions. Temper tantrums and talking back to parents or teachers are very much expected. Some children will appear to be more irritable than others though, to the point where it leads parents to worry about their mental health, and mental health professionals to diagnose them with bipolar disorder. This however, should not really be the case, says Stuart L. Kaplan, M.D. in an article for PsychologyToday.
Irritable child: Overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder in children
According to Dr. Kaplan, irritability has been a major source of the overdiagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents. He points to the child psychiatry division at Harvard University as insisting that extreme irritability makes up the core symptom of bipolar disorder in preschool children, school aged children, and adolescents.
The thing with children and temper tantrums
This point of view, however, has already been rejected by the National Institute of Mental Health as well as the DSM-5 Children’s Committee, says Dr. Kaplan. To better diagnose children who are chronically irritable, the DSM-5 Children’s Committee came up with Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD), under which children who have a minimum of three temper tantrums per week with a persistently angry or irritable mood between the temper outbursts are categorized.
Bipolar disorder in children
Dr, Kaplan maintains there is little to support claims that irritability alone is diagnostic of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents, and I totally agree. For far too long, countless children who have exhibited irritability have been misdiagnosed with bipolar disorder. Worse, these misdiagnosed children have been given medications that are being used to treat the condition in adults.
Personally, I think that if you have a chronically irritable child and some doctor diagnoses him or her to have bipolar disorder, always get a second opinion. And please, no pharmacological agents, not for someone so young.
Click here to read the full article.
Mtoto mwenye hasira ataonyesha tabia ya kukasirika-kasirika, bila ubaguzi wowote. Matatizo ya hasira na kuzungumza na wazazi au walimu ni jambo linalotarajiwa sana. Watoto wengine huonekana kuwa na hasira kuliko wengine, hadi hatua ambayo inawafanya wazazi kuwa na wasiwasi juu ya afya yao ya akili, na wataalamu wa afya ya akili kuwachunguza kuwa na ugonjwa wa bipolar. Hata hivyo, hilo halipaswi kuwa kweli, asema Stuart L. Kaplan, Daktari wa Matibabu. Katika makala ya PsychologyToday. Ugonjwa wa bipolar ni ugonjwa wa kawaida kwa watoto, na kulingana na Dk Kaplan, ugonjwa huo ni chanzo kikuu cha ugonjwa wa bipolar kwa watoto na vijana. "Kama ilivyoelezwa na ""Child Psychiatry Division"" katika Chuo Kikuu cha Harvard, ""kuudhika sana ni dalili ya msingi ya ugonjwa wa bipolar kwa watoto wa kabla ya shule, watoto wa umri wa shule, na vijana.""" "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Mtazamo huu umekataa tayari na Taasisi ya Kitaifa ya Afya ya Akili na Kamati ya Watoto ya DSM-5.""" Kwa watoto wenye hasira ya kudumu, DSM-5 inaelezea kama ugonjwa wa Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD), ambayo ni ugonjwa wa watoto ambao wana hasira ya kawaida ya mara tatu kwa wiki na hasira ya mara kwa mara kati ya hasira. Dk Kaplan anasema kuna mambo machache yanayounga mkono madai ya kwamba hasira peke yake ni utambuzi wa ugonjwa wa bipolar kwa watoto na vijana. Kwa muda mrefu sana, watoto wengi ambao wameonyesha hasira wameambukizwa ugonjwa wa hisia-moyo. Kwa kuongezea, watoto hao waliopatikana na ugonjwa huo wamepokea dawa ambazo hutumiwa kutibu ugonjwa huo kwa watu wazima. "Kama mtoto wako ana ugonjwa wa ""bipolar disorder"" na daktari amemwambia kuwa ana ugonjwa huo, unapaswa kutafuta maoni ya pili." Na tafadhali, hakuna dawa za dawa, si kwa mtu mchanga kama huyo. Bonyeza hapa ili usome makala hiyo nzima.