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Summary: Wow! Great insights into this challenging condition.
Review: This book offers invaluable insights into a horrible condition. Bipolar is by far one of the toughest conditions I have had to work with. This book helps to frame bipolar children in a great context. They are still worthy of love, patience, and respect. I also suggest "The Child Whisperer" by Matt Pasquinilli as a great tool for improving communication and empowering positive behavior with any children. It is especially helpful with bipolar children.
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Summary: Very helpful for siblings too
Review: This book is well written and full of helpful, practical information. .... The book has some good advice for parents on how to make siblings feel safe despite a raging child in the house. This is very important. Many parents assume that siblings are jealous of the attention our sick brother or sister receives. We aren't (at least the ones I know). But it can be scary. Help us feel safe and let us know what (if anything) we can do to make the sick person feel better. The book could have provided more information on the topic of siblings, perhaps, but, nonetheless, I found the book informative and easy to read.
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Summary: The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide
Review: Found this book extremely helpful and easy to understand. Want all my family members to read it. It will help give them a better understanding of the bipolar teen in our family.
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Summary: Laurance F. Johnson M.D.
Review: I have been practicing Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatry for 28 years and was simply very very impressed by this book.I found it a few years ago, by accident,at Borders in Pasadena.Superlatives do not do it enough credit, and I'm real picky.This is an excellent book for parents, is written in a very empathic and sensitive tone,and you can feel what a warm hearted physician Papolos is. The first few chapters on diagnosis and behaviors are superb.I use it in my practice on a weekly basis and have recommended it to numerous parents.The chapters on Psychopharmacology, genetics are also top notch.
Again, I cannot stress enough how empathic the authors are and how well they describe the horrible suffering of the children and parents with this terrible, but treatable, illness.
Several reviews of this book have nitpicked about the overdiagnosis of this disorder and commented on the fact there,s not enough about behavior therapy.There may be some truth to this, but there is a very strong and growing movement in Child Psychiatry to diagnose and treat these children early. The results are rewarding and often life saving.My personal experience, and those of capable local colleagues is that parental denial is so high about this disorder that most parent "go through" 4-5 Physicians who diagnose their children correctly before finally accepting it. I simply cannot say enought good things about this excellent book.Its excellent for teachers, physicians and parents.
The book also greatly helps parents understant that this illness is genetic and not the result of bad parenting!!So much parental guilt can be assauged. Bipolar illness in children is not caused by bad limit setting,angry,frustrated parents.There is so much relief to realize that there is lots of help available,e.g, psychotherapy, medications,family therapy etc.Many of these youngsters can lead full, happy lives.The crucial issuse if how severe the illness is.Some cases are mild, some moderate and some severe, but most can be helped.Read this wonderful book.
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Summary: Excellent read
Review: I would not be suprised if this became the definitive book on child-onset bipolar disorder.
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Summary: My New Bible
Review: This book was recommended to me by a friend. It has now become my bible. I use this book faithfully to help keep up with what my childs pdoc.. is saying and doing. I have given it to my children's therapist to read. I have read it cover to cover and was finally seeing things that my boys where doing. I love how this book is written for us parents to understand not the docs.. We should all be so luckly to have such two great caring and compassionite people who have taken a great deal deal of time to research and write a book we parents can understand. Thank you.
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Summary: Essential for families and friends
Review: This is a fine book that I hope most psychiatrists have read by now and have recommended to the families of children and teenagers who suffer from any mood disorder, or, indeed, any mental disorder. In part this is because these disorders are still not well understood by all psychiatrists, and there is a strong likelihood that many patients, including adults, are misdiagnosed, since there is often "comorbidity" of disorders, and symptoms that occur in for example, both "schizophrenia" and "bi-polar" disorders. There is also some confusion between ADHD and bipolar disorder. I would have liked more about the diagnostic problems in psychiatry to be covered in the book, since these are of particular interest to me, but overall I find this book to be invaluable as both an informative read and a continuing reference for the non-professional like me. (And there are plenty of professionals who should read it and learn something as well!) The book has some helpful and effective illustrations and charts, along with some really valuable advice, one of which is that "[t]he Diagnostic and Statistical Manual was not handed down at Mt. Sinai..." It seems to me that too many psychiatrists use this reference (DSM-IV) as a "cookbook" in treating their patients, and since treatments, particularly drug treatments, can be so different depending on the diagnosis, it is critical to get a diagnosis using other information, such as family history, social history, and outside sources such as friends, school authorities, etc. The book is a definite must-read for all who have family or friends having bipolar disorder, and it is by now apparently the leading book on bipolar disorder in children. If I had one criticism, it would be that the book might offer more in the way of advice to our society in the way that drug and alcohol abuse are "treated" in children and teenagers. As long as those problems are treated as "moral" or legal problems, the difficulty in treating childhood mental disorders is still more difficult. The book does emphasize the special danger of substance abuse in bipolar kids, and another useful admonition to parents and doctors is "if you see bipolar disorder, suspect substance abuse; if you see substance abuse, suspect bipolar disorder". In recent interviews with several psychiatrists, I found that many did not know even some of the basics of what is in this book. That's another reason for the patient's family to know as much as possible when dealing with medical professionals. This book will be a big help to those families having children with bipolar disorders or other disorders.
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Summary: Excellent Book about Bipolar Disorder in children
Review: I highly recommend this book for parents and professionals that work with children and teens diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. I have read some other books out about this disorder and this is far the best book to describe the symptoms that differ from adult onset of bipolar. I would like the authors to write a book on bipolar disorder in children and adolescents for mental health professionals on treatment and therapy interventions for the client and the family.
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Summary: Wealth of information
Review: At first I borrowed this book from the library. I knew within a very short time that I needed/wanted a copy of my own. It has been the best money spent. There is so much information that a parent of a child diagnosed with bipolar needs. I find myself re-reading this book over and over. It has helped us with medicine questions and also on how to handle different situations. The chapter on dealing with bipolar and your school districts - is worth the price alone. I had never heard of an IEP before reading this book. I was able to go into the meeting with knowledge and suggestions regarding my child and how to help him. Deffinately worth every penny.
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Summary: Fad Diagnosis
Review: Bipolar Disorder is a current fad diagnosis. This book describes characteristics and symptoms in kids that meet the criteria for any number of diagnoses. Trying to put labels on kids by using lists of behaviors is poor child psychiatry. One must evaluate and understand (to the greatest degree possible) the neurochemical dynamics of a kid's behavior and then treat the problem in a comprehensive manner using a variety of therapeutic tools. The same behavior may have different neurochemical causes in different kids. The diagnostic label is of secondary importance. The reality is that many kids present with a clinical picture that is complex to the point that none of the currently accepted diagnostic labels really fit. Also, beware of people specializing in a particular diagnosis. They will see it everwhere.
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