Diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children (Health, Medicine, Nursing Essay)

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Diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children
Bipolar disorder among children is a complex problem because of their underdeveloped state in terms of mental health and emotional wellbeing. This makes it harder for them to understand what they are undergoing which means they cannot distinguish some of the symptoms they are displaying, making it harder to tease out the actual problem (Parens & Johnston, 2010). Consequently, attempting a questionnaire based assessment with the hope of producing a diagnosis is quite ineffective due to the child’s inability to articulate their actual problems. This situation is worsened by comorbidities whose symptoms overlap with bipolar disorder e.g. ADHD which make it harder to diagnose the problem amongst the young and in its early stages (Renk et al, 2014). Typical questionnaire based assessments which engage the child to respond to a series of questions are therefore inconclusive at best and can only confirm whether a problem exists of not without indicating they type of problem it is.
On the other hand, a...