Decreasing Rates of Pediatric Bipolar Within an Outpatient Practice.

PROBLEM: Pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) prevalence is estimated to be 1-3%. Nationally and internationally, rates of PBD have increased by over 400%. However, in Iowa and at one psychiatric clinic in Iowa, from 2008-2013, there was a decrease in PBD diagnosis of 33 and 51.2% respectively. This study examined the diagnosing practices of PBD by local providers in one outpatient mental health center.

METHOD: Parents completed a screening packet to differentiate between PBD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using three tools: Child Mania Rating Scale (CMRS), Child Behavior Checklist-Mania Scale (CBCL-MS), and the NICHQ Vanderbilt. Symptom agreement analysis between the screeners and the provider's clinical diagnoses was performed using ANOVA and Tukey HSD posthoc analysis.

FINDINGS: A 19.6% of the participants were positive for PBD on the CMRS and 55.9% were positive on the CBCL-MS.  A total of 36.60% were positive for ADHD on the Vanderbilt.  The screening data compared to the provider's clinical diagnosis showed no diagnostic agreement for PBD (p < .05). Providers' rates of diagnosing PBD did not match the rate of PBD symptoms identified by the screeners.

CONCLUSION: Further evidence to determine the criteria and use of current screening measures for PBD is needed to guide practice for distinguishing PBD from related disorders.