WHEN the prevalence of a medical condition leaps fivefold in eight years and it is not an infectious disease, something strange is going on. That is what has happened to childhood bipolar disorder in the US. The increase is not mirrored in other countries and there is no consensus among US doctors over the cause of the rise. Alarm bells are ringing.
Bipolar disorder used to be called manic depression. Over many months patients swing between extreme emotional highs and lows. Until a decade ago it was an exclusively adult disease whose diagnosis required serious symptoms, including hospitalisation for mania.…
