Benedict Carey at The New York Times has done a nice job threading his way through the complexities and controversies surrounding the approval of the new edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual, known as the DSM-5...
Category: pediatric bipolar disorder
Benedict Carey at The New York Times has done a nice job threading his way through the complexities and controversies surrounding the approval of the new edition of the psychiatrists' diagnostic manual, known as the DSM-5. In a story headlined "A Tense Compromise on Defining Disorders," he focuses on three revisions that caused particular concern among both professionals and activists. Those revisions concerned the diagnosis of depression, autism, and pediatric bipolar disorder.
He explains the changes and the significance of those changes. In each case, the revisions could mean that some people diagnosed with those disorders by the criteria in DSM-4 will no longer have them when evaluated by the criteria in the DSM-5. And, he notes, the reverse is...
The authors of an article on the website of Scientific American Mind are entitled to their opinion on whether or not children can get bipolar disorder. They are not entitled to dress up their...
The authors of an article on the website of Scientific American Mind are entitled to their opinion on whether or not children can get bipolar disorder. They are not entitled to dress up their opinion as reporting.
The article, by Scott O. Lilienfeld and Hal Arkowitz, is headlined "Do Kids Get Bipolar Disorder?" That promises a broad examination of the topic. But that's not what we get.
The authors begin their story with a boy with behavior problems. But he's a fabrication. The story begins: "Imagine an eight-year old boy whom we will call Eric..." Imagination is a beautiful thing, but we should be wary of imagining characters in nonfiction. (Although it's a lot easier than finding real kids.)
They then recite statistics showing that the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in children has risen sharply in...
©2010 Knight Science Journalism at MIT. All Rights Reserved.