Treatment
Medications can produce important side effects so interventions have been recommended to be closely monitored and families of patients be informed of the different possible problems that can arise. Atypical antipsychotics may produce weight gains as well as other metabolic problems, including diabetes mellitus type 2 and hyperlipidemia. Extrapyramidal secondary effects may appear with these medications. These include tardive dyskinesia, a difficult-to-treat movement disorder (dyskinesia) that can appear after long-term use of anti-psychotics. Liver and kidney damage are a possibility with mood stabilizers.
Psychological treatment usually includes some combination of education on the disease, group therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. Children with BD and their families are informed, in ways accordingly to their age and family role, about the different aspects of BD and its management including causes, signs and symptoms and treatments. Group therapy aims to improve social skills and manage group conflicts, with role-playing as a critical tool. Finally cognitive-behavioral training is directed towards the participants having a better understanding and control over their emotions and behaviors.
Family therapy has strong support for treatment of pediatric bipolar disorder. Family Therapy is a branch of psychotherapy that works with families. It tends to view change in terms of the systems of interactions between family members. Families are seen as an interconnected force where the actions of the family members affect the health or dysfunction of each individual and the family as a whole. Family therapists focus on relationship patterns and are generally more interested in what goes on between family members rather than within one or more individuals. One family member may have a problem and the family relationships may be contributing to or maintaining that problem. For example, when a child has a behavior problem, family therapists may see the child as a 'scapegoat' and view the problem as actually residing within the family system. Family therapists avoid blaming any family member for the problem, and instead help the family interact in different ways that may solve the problem. There are both general, historical models of Family therapy (i.e., Structural, Strategic, Bowenian) and more specific, evidence-based approaches that are based on the earlier models. Strong research evidence suggests that both general and specific family therapy approaches are effective with a wide variety of clinical problems, including the treatment of bipolar spectrum disorders.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is also effective in treating bipolar disorder in young people. CBT is the term used for a group of psychological treatments that are based on scientific evidence. These treatments have been proven to be effective in treating many psychological disorders among children and adolescents, as well as adults.
When all treatment options are ineffective clozapine and electroconvulsive therapy have been proposed as last choice possibilities.
Read more about this topic: Bipolar Disorder In Children
Famous quotes containing the word treatment:
“Judge Ginsburg’s selection should be a model—chosen on merit and not ideology, despite some naysaying, with little advance publicity. Her treatment could begin to overturn a terrible precedent: that is, that the most terrifying sentence among the accomplished in America has become, “Honey—the White House is on the phone.””
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)
“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“I feel that any form of so called psychotherapy is strongly contraindicated for addicts.... The question “Why did you start using narcotics in the first place?” should never be asked. It is quite as irrelevant to treatment as it would be to ask a malarial patient why he went to a malarial area.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)