26.2 discriminating between bipolar disorder and severe, chronic irritability using neuroscience

A major contributor to the conflation of mood dysregulation with pediatric bipolar disorder was the hypothesis that a type of mood dysregulation —nonepisodic, severe irritability in the context of hyperactivity—is a developmental phenotype for bipolar disorder. Testing this hypothesis required the development of an experimental clinical diagnosis representing this hypothetical developmental expression of bipolar disorder, severe mood dys regulation (SMD). Once established, investigations tested the discriminant validity between SMD and youth who have had a clear episode of mania (narrow phenotype pediatric bipolar disorder, NPB).
Source: Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Clinical Perspectives 26 Source Type: research