Predictors, Criteria, and Treatment Response

This month’s Focus on Childhood and Adolescent Mental Health section provides clinically useful information about predictors of bipolar disorder and suicidality, revised criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and treatment response in youth with comorbid bipolar disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

There is substantial comorbidity between bipolar disorder and ADHD in youth. Identification of those children with ADHD who are at risk for development of bipolar disorder is an issue of concern for clinicians and parents. Biederman and colleagues evaluated the predictive utility of the Child Behavior Checklist-Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (CBCL-PBD) profile to identify those children at risk for bipolar disorder. The CBCL-PBD was administered to 204 children, aged 6 to 18 years old, at baseline. The children were divided into groups based on their CBCL-PBD score, positive if the sum of the CBCL-PBD subscales attention problems, aggressive behavior, and anxiousdepressed was ≥ 210 or negative if below this cutoff.