Bipolar Teens Often Suffer from Distinct Sleep Problems

Teens with Bipolar disorders (BD) are found to have unique sleep problems; a combination of long times before falling asleep and increased nighttime awakenings, compared to healthy people. It shows that poor sleep quality and disturbances can be reliable markers for bipolar disorders among young people.

This conclusion comes from the study of researchers based in Stanford University in California, U.S after studying 27 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years diagnosed with type I BD  with symptoms of mania during the last 12 months who were matched with 24 healthy controls of similar age, ethnicity and gender.

The participants, along with their parents, were made to complete a questionnaire that assesses their sleep. Mood is measured using Young Mania Rating Scale and Childhood Depression Rating Scale.

Results shows that adolescents with BD suffer from longer onset of time needed to fall asleep and more frequent nighttime awakening during weekdays. This problem is not present on healthy controls, and researchers suggest that this finding maybe used to accurately identify youths with bipolar disorder.

Detecting and identifying bipolar disorders in young children had been challenging for decades, because youths elicit symptoms that are different from adults. For example, moods of affected adolescents may change several times a day, or even elicit both mania and depression at the same time. Bipolar disorders compounded with depression, ADHD and disruptive behavior problems are not unheard of, and they commonly occur in young people.

The condition itself is controversial in children, because of its rising diagnosis among children in the United States. Recent research says that at least 2 percent of children in the country have the disorder.

 

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