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The most important thing parents and siblings can do is simply to serve as the eyes and ears of the bipolar child. A teen in a depression can't see the hope beyond the gloom. A child in a manic cycle can't see the quiet reality behind the giddiness. It's up to people whose compasses are more reliably functioning to step in and point the way. Says Dr. Gary Sachs, director of the Bipolar Treatment Center at Boston's Massachusetts General Hospital and principal investigator for the STEP-BD project: "Treatment is modeled on Homer's Odyssey. When Odysseus gets blown off course, he asks the help of his crew."
In the future, kids should be getting yet more assistance as they sail. At the Stanley Research Center, in Massachusetts General Hospital, investigators are beginning a yearlong study of at least 10 bipolar drugs, comparing the merits of each and the ways they can best be combined. Others are looking at such unconventional treatments as omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish oil, which may inhibit the same brain receptors that lithium affects. Elsewhere, researchers are running brain scans to determine which lobes and regions are involved in bipolar disorder and how to target them more accurately with drugs. Investigators also hope to develop a blood test that will allow bipolar disorder to be spotted as simply as, say, high cholesterol, eliminating years of incorrect diagnoses and misguided treatments.
Getting all this work done right--and getting the treatments to the kids who need it--is one of the newest and most challenging goals of the mental-health community. Doctors who recognize bipolar disorder and know how to handle it are in critically short supply. Growing up is hard enough for children who are bipolar. The last thing they need is a misdiagnosis and treatment for something they don't have. --Reported by Dan Cray and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles, Jeanne DeQuine/Miami, Melissa Sattley/Texas, Cristina Scalet/New York and Maggie Sieger/Chicago
For more information, visit these websites: time.com/bipolar bpkids.org (Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation) and jbrf.org (Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation)