TY  - JOUR
T1  - BIpolar disorder?
AU  - Jeffrey A. M
Y1  - 2010/11/01
N1  - 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.143
JO  - Archives of General Psychiatry
SP  - 1198
EP  - 1198
VL  - 67
IS  - 11
N2  - 
The article by Birmaher et al1 in the March 2009 Archives contributes to the controversy regarding bipolar disorder (BD) in school-aged children. As Birmaher et al note, most of these children met criteria for BD not otherwise specified but not BD type I or BD type II, because they lack the “episode duration requirements for those diagnoses.” However, without the episode duration requirements, one has a patient with considerable emotional lability and intensity that, especially in a child, cannot be easily differentiated from being a precursor of a personality disorder (eg, borderline or histrionic personality disorders) or related to attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. It is unclear whether it serves any purpose to call these children's disease BD.

SN  - 0003-990X
M3  - doi: 10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.143
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/archgenpsychiatry.2010.143
ER  -