We’ve dealt with a lot of similar symptoms. Have they ruled out bipolar disorder? We have an ODD diagnosis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets changed to DMDD at some point. DMDD is also a precursor to bipolar, which is why bipolar is on my radar too (especially because we have family history of bipolar). The symptoms of bipolar in kids gave some overlap to DSM, and the symptom-free periods sound a lot like something a bipolar child might experience.
So, they basically told us that DMDD is the diagnosis being used instead of pediatric bipolar, and that he has an increased risk of bipolar later in life. Somewhat conflicting, though, I read that the DMDD categorization was initiated bc pediatric bipolar were not actually growing up to have adult bipolar. We have a family history that includes depression and not bipolar, which may be what tipped the scales to a DMDD diagnosis? I have the uninformed impression that people with bipolar experience stability between mania and depressive cycles (but maybe that's wrong?). Eli has stable periods, but when he's not stable, he experiences rapid changes between mania and depression...not really long stretches of one into the other, if that makes sense. Thank you for bringing this up, I'm going to read up on pediatric bipolar a bit and write about it today!
I look forward to reading your post! From what I have read, rapid cycling tends to be prevalent in kids with bipolar. And mania can present itself in a similar to way to a lot of ADHD symptoms in kids, with the main distinguishing feature of bipolar being that those symptoms cycle for bipolar and remain constant for ADHD.
We’ve dealt with a lot of similar symptoms. Have they ruled out bipolar disorder? We have an ODD diagnosis, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets changed to DMDD at some point. DMDD is also a precursor to bipolar, which is why bipolar is on my radar too (especially because we have family history of bipolar). The symptoms of bipolar in kids gave some overlap to DSM, and the symptom-free periods sound a lot like something a bipolar child might experience.
Oops. Substitute “BPD” everywhere I wrote “DSM.” Got my acronyms mixed up.
So, they basically told us that DMDD is the diagnosis being used instead of pediatric bipolar, and that he has an increased risk of bipolar later in life. Somewhat conflicting, though, I read that the DMDD categorization was initiated bc pediatric bipolar were not actually growing up to have adult bipolar. We have a family history that includes depression and not bipolar, which may be what tipped the scales to a DMDD diagnosis? I have the uninformed impression that people with bipolar experience stability between mania and depressive cycles (but maybe that's wrong?). Eli has stable periods, but when he's not stable, he experiences rapid changes between mania and depression...not really long stretches of one into the other, if that makes sense. Thank you for bringing this up, I'm going to read up on pediatric bipolar a bit and write about it today!
I look forward to reading your post! From what I have read, rapid cycling tends to be prevalent in kids with bipolar. And mania can present itself in a similar to way to a lot of ADHD symptoms in kids, with the main distinguishing feature of bipolar being that those symptoms cycle for bipolar and remain constant for ADHD.