Bipolar Disorder Detected in Preschoolers

I'm not surprised that researchers are now diagnosing bipolar disorder in preschool-aged children, i.e., 2 to 4 years old. After all, it's being diagnosed like, um, crazy in teens and adolescents. I won't even get into whether I think it's legit to do this in children so young. What troubles me isn't the diagnosis, but the inevitable implication that it will lead to the use of powerful psych meds--such as atypical antipsychotics--in the terrible twos. I have a hard time believing that can be both safe, especially long-term, and socially desirable, except in extreme cases. But that's a more complex conversation for another time. For now, read this press release...and learn that some of the research with children was done using "age appropriate" puppet interviews. Oh, those wacky psych researchers.