Mood disorders in children : from the bipolar disorder to the severe mood disorder.
Abstract
Mood disorders in children have been the key point of a major controversy for the last 15 years. On one hand,
the Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (PBD) which takes a large spot within the mood disorders, and on the other
hand, the new concept of Severe Mood Disorder (SMD) which came out in the early 2000, is represented by
his cardinal symptom: chronic, non episodic irritability. A more irritable form of manic states, a greater
number of cycles, a longer period of episodes and a higher rate of relapses, characterize the pediatric bipolar
disorder. Most of irritable children, suspected to have a pediatric bipolar disorder, don’t fulfill the diagnosis’s
criteria. That’s the reason why larger phenotypes of PBD were created, so these children who have an
insufficient number of criteria, could be diagnosed with PBD. The controversy is raised from the use of these
larger phenotypes, increasing exponentially the number of PBD’s diagnoses, mainly in the states. It brought
out the question of who are really those irritable kids, who have rages?
Through this dissertation, we reviewed the medical the study’s data regarding the PBD and the SMD, in order
to present their epidemiologic, clinical and therapeutic characteristics. From there, we studied the different
aspects of this controversy, so we could underline their respective and genuine place.
From this review, irritability stands as an overlapping symptom of the BDP and the SMD. Its episodic feature
concerns the BPD, whereas its non-episodic and chronic features are gathered in the SMD. The distinction
between the SMD and the pediatric bipolar disorder-not other specified (PBD-NOS) is trickier. The PBD-NOS
is a larger phenotype of the BDP, based on a categorical pattern and is likely to be converting towards a PBD.
Whereas the SMD is created from a developmental and integrative approach of chronic irritability. The
SMD’s outcomes seem to be similar than the depression ones. The outcomes in therapeutic decisions are
major, knowing the risk of exposing young people to the various side effects of the antipsychotics and mood
stabilizers.
Key words: pediatric bipolar disorder, severe mood disorder, pediatric bipolar disorder-not other specified,
irritability, manic, children, antipsychotics, mood stabilizer.