Newsweek Examines Bipolar Disorder in Children Through Experience of One Family Disease Hard to Pin Down; at Least 800,000 Children in U.S. Diagnosed
NEW YORK, May 18 /PRNewswire/ -- As Newsweek General Editor Mary
Carmichael reports in the May 26 cover, "Growing Up Bipolar" (on newsstands
Monday, May 19), childhood bipolar disorder is hard to pin down. At least
800,000 children in the U.S. have been diagnosed as bipolar, no doubt some of
them wrongly. There are many drugs, but it's unclear how they work. Often they
don't work at all, and they may interfere with normal brain growth. There are
no studies on their long-term effects in children. Yet untreated bipolar
disorder can be disastrous; 10 percent of sufferers commit suicide.
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080518/NYSU004 )
Parents must choose between two wrenching options: treat their children
and risk a bad outcome, or don't treat and risk a worse one. No matter what
they do, they are in for uncertainty and pain. Carmichael reports on the
dilemma by telling the wrenching story of one family, Amy and Richie Blake and
their 10-year-old son Max, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was
two years old.
She reports that Max was seven the first time he tried to kill himself. He
wrote a four-page will bequeathing his toys to his friends and jumped out his
ground-floor bedroom window, falling six feet into his backyard, bruised but
in one piece. Children don't really know what death is, as the last page of
Max's will made clear: "If I'm still alive when I have grandchildren," it
began. But they know what unhappiness is and what it means to suffer.
On a recent Monday afternoon, Max, now 10, was supposed to come home on
the schoolbus, but a counselor summoned his mother at 2:15. When Amy Blake
arrived at school, her son gave her the note that had prompted the call. "Dear
Mommy & Daddy," it read, "I am really feeling sad and depressed and lousy
about myself. I love you but I still feel like I want to kill myself. I am
really sad but I just want help to feel happy again. The reason I feel so bad
is because I can't sleep at night.
And dad yells at me to just sleep at night. But, I can't control it. It is
not me that does control it. I don't know what controls it, but it is not me.
I really really need some help, love Max!!!!! I Love you Mommy I Love you
Daddy."
At 10, Max Blake has been on 38 different psychoactive drugs, Carmichael
reports. The meds have serious side effects. They have made Max gain weight,
and because he's still growing, they frequently need to be changed. The Blakes
are aware that many people think their child -- any child -- should not be on
so many drugs. They aren't always happy about it either. But to some degree,
they have made their peace with medication.
"He's oppositional-defiant, he's dyslexic, he's ADHD, he's OCD," says Amy.
"Give me an initial and he has it." Bipolar children, especially those
diagnosed early, often have such a litany of disorders. The bipolar brain
tries to compensate for its weak prefrontal cortex by roping in other areas to
help; these areas may now become dysfunctional, too. Child psychiatrists thus
face an enormous practical challenge: they often can't treat one disorder
without affecting another one. "It's like a balloon where you push on one side
and the other side pops out," says Janet Wozniak, the Massachusetts General
Hospital psychiatrist who helped define childhood bipolar disorder. With kids
like Max, she adds, parents often have to settle for "just having one part of
the symptoms reduced."
Max's life has improved in some ways since his early childhood. The
Manville School, part of the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston, has
given him a social life. Last year he won a "Welcome Wagon" award after
teachers noticed he was always the first to show new students around. When his
classmates have outbursts of their own, he talks them down. "He'll say that
maybe they need to take some space, take a deep breath, leave the classroom,"
says his teacher, Julie Higgins.
He has not, however, figured out how to talk himself down, and for all he
has progressed as a classmate, he struggles as a student. Technically, Max is
in fourth grade -- Manville does not separate grade levels -- but he is behind
in some subjects. He loves science and art, but he has a hard time reading,
and although he is creative, he can't put his ideas in a coherent order. Even
holding a pencil for more than a few minutes can be a challenge. "Sometimes
you can look at him and you know his disorder has captured him," says the
school's director, Jim Prince. "But we can't abandon him. We have to be able
to hold on to him, sometimes literally, but also emotionally, to help him come
out on the other side."
(Read cover story at www.Newsweek.com.)
http://www.newsweek.com/id/137517
SOURCE Newsweek
