Source: DGNews  |  Posted 8 years ago

By Paula Moyer

MIAMI BEACH, FL -- October 27, 2003 -- Children and adolescents with bipolar disorder respond well to combination therapy consisting of lithium and divalproex (Depakote), according to principal investigator Robert L. Findling, MD.

"There is a misconception that children do not respond as well as adults to mood stabilisers," said Dr. Findling, the director of child and adolescent psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland, where he is also on the faculty at Case Western Reserve University. "However, when children are taken off of medications that may destabilise their bipolar disorder, they actually have a better response than do adults."

While depression is the predominant mood excursion in adult bipolar disorder, manic and hypomanic episodes are the most common events in children and adolescents with this condition, Dr. Findling said. He presented his and his colleagues' results here October 17th at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

In the first phase of the research the investigators enrolled 139 children and adolescents, who ranged form five to 17 years old and an average of 10.8