Are Kids with ADHD and Bipolar Disorder Scared?
By Judith E. Pearson, Ph.D. A recent article by Dorothy Rowe in the June 16 issue of New Scientist gives a new perspective on the recent increases in ADHD and Bipolar Disorder among children and young adults. She writes that “In the U.S. nearly a million people, mostly children and young adults, are being prescribed amphetamine-like drugs for ADHD.” She also cites the observations of psychiatrists Gabrielle Carlson and Joseph Blader of Stonybrook University, New York, that “…in 1996 just 13 out of every 100,000 children in the U.S. were diagnosed with bipolar disorder [and] in 2004 the figure had leapt more than fivefold to 73 in 100,000. Rowe states that the symptoms of these two disorders resemble those of a person who is afraid. She offers that psychiatrists and psychologists often diagnose children as having ADHD or Bipolar Disorder on the basis of a reports by parents and teachers. In some cases the doctors have not obtained additional information about the child’s home life, no
