Bipolar Disorder in Children and Teens - Exams and Tests

Exams and Tests

There is no laboratory test to diagnose bipolar disorder. Doctors make the diagnosis through a combination of:

• A medical history, asking questions to help identify other past and present health conditions that could cause the symptoms.
• A family history to identify bipolar disorder, other mood disorders, or substance abuse problems in close relatives. (All of these conditions are linked to bipolar disorder.)
• A physical exam, which can rule out other conditions with similar symptoms (such as hyperthyroidism).
• A mental health assessment, which can help identify your child's current mental state and the severity of depression or mania.
• Other written or verbal mental health tests.

In young children, the symptoms of mania are more than just being a bother to adults and other children now and then. For example, many children can be silly and giggly to a point that it bothers their parents sometimes. This is not considered to be a sign of mania. But if a child is silly and giggly for several hours, several times almost every day, and this is interrupting the family's usual routine, then it may be a symptom of mania.

To check your child for mania symptoms, your doctor will use a set of guidelines called FIND.¹ Your child may be diagnosed with mania if the doctor finds more than one symptom that is more severe than the FIND guidelines. The letters in FIND stand for:

• Frequency: Symptoms happen most days in a week.
• Intensity: Symptoms are severe enough to cause problems with teachers, parents, brothers, sisters, and friends.
• Number: Symptoms happen 3 or 4 times a day.
• Duration: Symptoms last 4 or more hours a day. This time may be spread out during the day rather than happening all at once.

Doctors check to see if a child's symptoms are more severe than the FIND guidelines. Also, more than one symptom has to be more severe than the FIND guidelines to be diagnosed as mania.¹

Before prescribing medicine to treat bipolar disorder, your doctor will check your child for possible suicidal behavior by asking a few questions. See a list of questions your doctor may ask your child.