Up to 75% of bipolar children become suicidal?? Seriously, someone show me the money -- where on God's Green Earth did THAT figure come from?? It seems to have been randomly plucked from the air. If there really is data to support this point, someone PLEASE post a good link to it on my site or here on Furious Seasons. It's almost like listening to the Bush administration just make things up about the war, randomly pulling "facts" out of their hindquarters. UGH!

I have been so impressed with the NYT lately. They seem to have taken a genuine interest in what is going on with patient care as opposed to the general media reaction to splash the one person with mental illness either overmedicated or off meds who goes crazy and kills someone, which brings me to another point I have been pondering about the media lately.

Why is it the media makes it a front page news when a mentally ill person kills someone when we have hundreds of thousands of everyday people who kill people evey year in DUI accidents. Why isn't that front page news. They are using 5,000 pound 70 mph moving vehicles as their weapon of choice though the mentally ill person is always made out to look as if this is this is the daily occurance, which it is not.

.."that up to three-quarters of children who exhibit bipolar symptoms become suicidal, and that it is important to treat the problem as early as possible. "

THIS comment is what the psychiatrists ,therapists and parent-help websites such as bpkids.org (CABF)promote; and use when speaking to parents with kids.

I have been there and done that. IF a parent inquires about alternative treatment they are given THAT as a lecture.(it happened to me). For years, I bought into it. Afterall, when the majority of professionals tell you that "you could be placing your child at risk for increased percentage of suicide", it scares a parent into believing they will kill their child if the kid goes off of meds.

Interestly, I went to a seminar held by an author of a 'bipolar child/ADD' category book. This (*tactic) was also used in that powerpoint discussion. I remember taking notes and highlighting where it reminded me that "off-meds, less chance of life, increased chances of suicide."

I'm a pretty liberal person, with a lot of ability to decipher what is right and wrong. What happened to me, as a parent, was what is happening to all of these parents of young kids:

They are being told to give meds or their kid will kill themselves and have a possible shortened life-span.(if you, the parent question giving them meds).

THIS has got to stop. If a parent hears it from every possible angle (even support groups such as NAMI)a parent will/does/could believe this generalized and non-data based theory, that childhood bipolar disorder should be medicated, or else.(consequences of increased suicide attempts).

I feel strongly that this was a preventable tragic death of this little girl. I'm pretty sure the parents were convinced to treat this kid with meds without being giving a talk regarding risks or side effects of meds. (this happened to me as well).Or, that the meds were SAFE to be used under age 18. (I was told this also)with the catchy hook "with close monitoring, this will be okay."

It's just short of brain-washing parents.

The parents (of this little girl) trusted the only system out there. (and it's a pretty vocal system isn't it?)

What a tragic outcome; as a result of parents listening to professionals who dish this stuff out every single day.

Parents trust the doctors (we are told to trust doctors aren't we?)Kids trust parents. Simple and basic trust is what the pro-med/Pharma group want us to do: "trust us, we know best, we are professionals, you are not."

Just remember it's probably 75% of the "treated" kids that go on to become suicidal. What kid that gets labeled "bipolar" is not medicated after all? But, yes, these statistics are so preposterous. What did Mark Twain say? "There are lies, damn lies and statistics." Something like that.

3/4 become suicidal? Seriously, are we just making crap up now?

Even if it were true, does "treating it early as possible" really reduce this rate?

Forget about double blind placebo controlled-- show me even association study that implies suicide rates are lower.

Frazier also wrote a paper suggesting that TMS and VNS are appropriate for clinical guidelines in pediatric psychiatric disorders, despite, well, they don't work.

As for the death of the child, IMO, where it went wrong, _specifically,_ is that the kid was treated as if he existed in a vacuum-- as if he had diabetes. Bipolar=meds. But any behavioral disorder, even if "biologically based" has a context, and that context is that family.

Maybe, if we are going to presist in the preposterousness of meds for kids under 4, we should require home visits and family therapy?

That's a great post Stephany and something else I have been thinking about. Though it is the pharma companies pushing the drugs, it is the shrinks that are prescribing these drugs at alarming high doses. Which brings up something my therapist asked me the other day. He asked me how I liked my new shrink and I told him the truth, which was that I felt she was too quick to prescribe high doses of medication (she told me she believes 400mg of Lamictal is an acceptable dose for a bipolar patient.) His response was that she does a lot of reading. She may be reading but as I read patient responses to these drugs, my guess is she is reading what the pharma companies and other shrinks are saying what is working for them. We have to be vigilant in our own care as I personally have been to about 20 shrinks and have only come across 1 that I truly trusted.

So thanks Philip for having websites like this so we can share our experiences and come to the realization that yes, it is not us, it is them.

As much as I wish my parents had me diagnosed when I started first showing symtoms at 4 years of age, I am glad I was not "offficially" diagnosed until I was 21.

This whole case scares me, and I cry for the victim. But I cannot help but wonder when this will be appearing on Law And Order- you know? (Heavy sarcasm).

Thanks for covering this and keeping us up to date Phil! ;-)

There is huge debate here in Boston on the role of the psychiatrist who diagnosed this child. What the NYT doesn't mention is the fact that the 2 older siblings were also prescribed the same medications. And, it appears that the behavioral reports most relied on were those of the parents. If you check the Boston papers from last week, you will see this is a far more sinister story than the NYT is reporting. I ,too,disagree with the premature diagnosis and the way drugs were prescribed here, but I think it likely that this child would have died youg, at the hands of her parents, even without these meds.

Speaking of "Harvard muckety" mucks Jean Frazier, the Harvard psychiatrist, wouldn't be any kin to Shervert Frazier, the Harvard psychiatrist and director of the National Institute of Mental Health, who was forced to step down after being caught plagiarizing, or would she?

Here's the link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6DA1439F937A25756C0A96F948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2

By midsummer, Scatena had completed his efforts to look for unattributed sources of every paragraph of Frazier's three articles. He had identified the Melzack article as the source of not one but four paragraphs of the 1966 article; in a clear violation of scientific and literary ethics, these paragraphs had been lifted verbatim or had appeared in slightly edited form....

Paul Scatena says he regards Frazier's reinstatement as ''pretty shabby. Personally, I think his buddies decided the heat was off and brought him back. I'm going to speak about academic dishonesty at a local high school soon, and maybe I ought to tell the kids, 'Cheat! It won't cost you much. Cheating is great!' ''

Another link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=9736860&dopt=Abstract

If so, there is irony to this history.

This simply shocks me. I can't imagine what possible behavior a 2 1/2yr old can demonstrate to be dx'd as bipolar.

Is this just a tool for a parent that doesn't have parameters for behavior outside of their narrow view of what is acceptable to control their child? Why didn't the child's teachers show a more proactive role in protecting a child that was obviously lathargic?

It makes me angry that this little girl was a casualty of irresponsible adults. Very preventable.

A 4-year-old child would probably not yet have started kindergarten, so she had no licensed "teachers" yet; day care providers would be a possiblity. Yet, it would have been difficult to find day care for this girl and her siblings who were similarly diagnosed and medicated. If they succeeded in finding such, they would be aware of the "psychiatric medication" and their "need", and would most likely chalk up any problems to the "psychiatric disorder".

In short, the child fell through the cracks of anyone who had anything to say in the matter.

The sad thing is that the parents will probably be aquitted, the psychiatrist given a slap on the wrist (maybe a suspension or have to move to another state), and it'll all be business as usual.

As for the 3/4 quote, it is being misread. "three-quarters of children who exhibit bipolar symptoms become suicidal" is the result of a Correlation study. Correlational studies do not and CAN NOT, by their very nature, provide cause and effect diagnosis. They simply point out a correlation. One of the criteria for bipolar syndrome is expression of suicidal thoughts or suicidal impulses (see: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV (DSM-IV). Were the suicidal tendencies there before receiving medication? Does stabilizing the cycling of moods result in greater awareness of the disorder that also can result in a desire to escape it? Correlational studies are a springboard to be used by members of the medical & psychiatric community and family members to ask more questions and cultivate more targeted therapeutic methodologies. Were I a school therapist or social worker presented with a student who was diagnosed bipolar (with our with out medication) you can be sure I would be grateful for the above mentioned CORRELATIONAL study and, as a result, I would spend extra time threading through how cycles of depression are manifested in that individual.