Latest Medication For Bipolar Affective Disorder – Zyprexa And Risperdal

At one time, it was believed that only adults suffered from bipolar disorder. The general consensus at the time was that the condition was set off sometime in the teenage and adolescent years and gradually worsened if left untreated as the kid grew into an adult.

Interestingly, to counter this view, recent years have seen more and more children diagnosed with the condition. Some scientists, researchers, and psychiatrists believe that this is due in some way to improve diagnostic methods, processes and means, while others think it is a stark reality of how many more people really are suffering from bipolar disorder, suggesting some unseen environmental trigger that has spiked the rise.

Whichever of these two schools of thought may be true there is a reality that neither can deny: there are kids – children – with bipolar disorder! Taking statistics from the Archives of General Psychiatry to study mental illness, only 3 percent of children in the United Stated were projected to suffer from bipolar disorder. As at the year 2000, this uncomfortable figure had risen to a more alarming 15 percent! And lest I forget to mention it, this figure continues to climb with each year that passes.

Ok, there is the genetic link that has been proven to be a factor in the cause of bipolar disorder in children. Parents who have suffered from some kind of depression or psychosis are more than likely – about 60 to 70 percent of the time – to birth children with various forms of depressive disorders as well. A good portion of these kids, as you might have surmised at this time, end up with bipolar disorder.

However, you are going to have to agree with me that even the population of the United States is not growing that fast. This points very clearly to some other factor – very likely an environmental factor – that must cause the set of symptoms that lead to bipolar disorder. In other words, more serious research is required to determine what this factor is.

In the meantime, our manic and depressed kids need to be treated; otherwise we would be breeding an entire generation of crazy people who will not hesitate to harm themselves or others. In response to this, there are effective antipsychotic drugs and mood stabilizers that do incredible wonders for children with bipolar disorder. Risperdal, for instance has been shown to yield good results – the FDA only recently approved it. Also, if you can get a prescription for Zyprexa, you may be able to do your bipolar child a lot of good.

Even with these medications, you have to see that your child also gets some psychotherapy so that they can balance out their emotions and learn to handle then along with the other treatments that they are getting.