What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents?
One of the biggest challenges has been to differentiate children with mania from those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Since both groups of children present with irritability, hyperactivity and distractibility, these symptoms are not useful for the diagnosis of mania. By contrast, elated mood, grandiose behaviors, flight of ideas, decreased need for sleep and hypersexuality occur primarily in mania and are uncommon in ADHD. Below is a brief description of how to recognize these mania-specific symptoms in children. • Elation. Elated children may laugh hysterically and act infectiously happy without any reason at home, school or in church. If someone who did not know them saw their behaviors, they would think the child was on his/her way to Disneyland. Parents and teachers often see this as “Jim Carey-like” behaviors. • Grandiose behaviors. Grandiose behaviors are when children act as if the rules do not pertain to them. For example, they believe they are so smart that the
