Manic symptoms in youth with bipolar disorder: factor analysis by age of symptom onset and current age

Prevalence and correlates of childhood-onset bipolar disorder among adolescents

AIM

Early-onset bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with a more severe illness as well as a number of clinical factors among adults. Early-onset can be categorized as childhood- (age < 13) or adolescent- (age ≥ 13) onset, with the two displaying different clinical profiles. We set out to examine differences in clinical, and familial characteristics among adolescents with childhood- versus adolescent-onset BD.

METHODS

The study included 195 adolescents with BD, ages 14-18 years. Age of onset was determined retrospectively by self-report. Participants completed the semi-structured K-SADS-PL diagnostic interviews along with self-reported dimensional scales. Analyses examined between-group differences for clinical and familial variables. Variables associated with age of onset at p < 0.1 in univariate analyses were evaluated in a logistic regression model.

RESULTS

Approximately one-fifth of participants had childhood-onset BD (n = 35; 17.9%). A number of clinical and familial factors were significantly associated with childhood-onset BD. However, there were no significant differences in depressive and manic symptom severity. In multivariate analyses, the variables most strongly associated with childhood-onset were police contact, and family history of suicidal ideation. Smoking and psychiatric hospitalization were associated with adolescent-onset.

CONCLUSIONS

In this large clinical sample of adolescents with BD, one-fifth reported childhood-onset BD. Correlates of childhood-onset generally aligned with those observed in the literature. Future research is warranted to better understand the genetic and environmental implications of high familial loading of psychopathology associated with childhood-onset, and to integrate age-related treatment and prevention strategies.

Affective Disorders with Psychosis in Youth: An Update

Mood disorders, including major depression and mania, can present with psychotic features. In youth psychotic-like phenomena such as "seeing faces in the dark" or "hearing noises" are fairly common. Rates of lifetime psychotic symptoms are much higher than rates of psychosis during a "current" episode of mania or depression in youth. Psychotic phenomena can be mood congruent or incongruent. A detailed mental status examination and clinical history include questioning to ensure the informants understand the questions being asked. There are interviews that structure how questions are asked, and rating scales that help anchor severity and quality of the mood episode.

Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Scale - Abbreviated Screen for Patients: Description and validation

OBJECTIVE

There is no standard method for assessing symptoms of the prodrome to bipolar disorder (BD), which has limited progress toward early identification and intervention. We aimed to validate the Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Scale-Abbreviated Screen for Patients (BPSS-AS-P), a brief self-report derived from the validated, clinician-rated Bipolar Prodrome Symptom Interview and Scale-Full Prospective (BPSS-FP), as a means to screen and identify people for whom further evaluation is indicated.

METHOD

Altogether, 134 participants (aged 12-18 years) were drawn from a study of the pre-syndromal stage of mood and psychotic disorders. All participants had chart diagnoses of a mood- or psychosis-spectrum disorder. Participants were interviewed with the BPSS-FP and completed measures of mania and non-mood psychopathology. Prior to being interviewed, patients completed the BPSS-AS-P. Scores on the BPSS-AS-P were determined by summing the severity and frequency ratings for each item.

RESULTS

BPSS-AS-P scores were highly reliable (Cronbach's alpha = 0.94) and correlated with the interview-based BPSS-FP Mania Symptom Index (r = 0.55, p < .0001). BPSS-AS-P scores had good convergent validity, correlating with the General Behavior Inventory-10M (r = 0.65, p < .0001) and Young Mania Rating Scale; r = 0.48, p < .0001). The BPSS-AS-P had good discriminant validity, not being correlated with scales measuring positive and negative symptoms of psychotic disorders (p-values = 0.072-0.667).

LIMITATIONS

Findings are limited by the cross-sectional nature of the study by the fact that the participants were all treatment-seeking. Future studies need to evaluate the predictive validity of the BPSS-AS-P for identifying those who develop BD in a community sample.

CONCLUSION

BPSS-AS-P has promise as a screening tool for people at risk for BD. Adopting the BPSS-AS-P would support the goal of characterizing the prodrome systematically in order to facilitate research and clinical care.

Genetic risk for bipolar disorder and psychopathology from childhood to early adulthood

BACKGROUND

Studying the phenotypic manifestations of increased genetic liability for Bipolar Disorder (BD) can increase understanding of this disorder.

AIMS

We assessed whether genetic risk for BD was associated with childhood psychopathology and features of hypomania in young adulthood within a large population-based birth cohort.

METHODS

We used data from the second Psychiatric Genetics Consortium Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) for Bipolar Disorder to construct a polygenic risk score (PRS) for each individual in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC). Linear and logistic regression models were used to assess associations between the BD-PRS and emotional/behavioural difficulties, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) traits in childhood, as well as hypomania in early adulthood (sample sizes from 2654 to 6111).

RESULTS

The BD-PRS was not associated with total hypomania score, but was weakly associated with a binary measure of hypomania (OR = 1.13, 95%CI 0.98,1.32; p = 0.097), and particularly at higher hypomania symptom thresholds (strongest evidence OR = 1.33, 95%CI 1.07, 1.65; p = 0.01). The BD-PRS was also associated with ADHD (OR = 1.31, 95%CI 1.10, 1.57; p = 0.018), but not with other childhood psychopathology.

LIMITATIONS

The PRS only captures common genetic variation and currently explains a relatively small proportion of the variance for BD.

CONCLUSIONS

The BD-PRS was associated with ADHD in childhood, and weakly with adult hypomania, but not with other psychopathology examined. Our findings suggest that genetic risk for BD does not appear to manifest in childhood to the same extent as schizophrenia genetic risk has been reported to do.

Symptom Dimensions and Trajectories of Functioning Among Bipolar Youth: A Cluster Analysis

BACKGROUND

Accurate assessment of pediatric bipolar disorder (BD) is important for allocating appropriate treatment, but it is complicated by significant heterogeneity in symptom presentation and high rates of comorbidity. Investigating clinical subtypes of the disorder may help to clarify diagnostic boundaries and inform targeted treatment. This study used a full diagnostic instrument to examine symptom patterns among youth with BD.

METHOD

Trained interviewers completed the Washington University Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (WASH-U-KSADS) with 71 children (7 to 13 y of age) and families as part of the baseline assessment for a randomized clinical trial of Child- and Family-focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CFF-CBT) compared with treatment as usual (TAU) for pediatric BD. All participants met DSM-IV-TR criteria for a bipolar spectrum disorder. Hierarchical and K-means cluster analyses were performed. Resultant clusters were compared on symptom severity and psychosocial functioning at baseline and across treatment.

RESULTS

Two distinct symptom profiles emerged: "dysregulated/defiant" and "classic presentation." The dysregulated/defiant cluster was characterized by more externalizing and disruptive behaviors, whereas the classic cluster presented with more severe depression, hallmark manic symptoms, anxiety, and inattention. CFF-CBT consistently promoted psychosocial coping skills, such as problem solving and self-control, for the dysregulated/defiant cluster. TAU also promoted these skills among the individuals in the classic presentation group but not those with symptoms in the dysregulated/defiant cluster.

DISCUSSION

Pediatric BD may be characterized by distinct phenotypes with unique etiologies and pathways to impairment. The use of a parametric approach to classify the diverse symptom presentations helped yield valuable insights into how to promote the best prognosis for improved functional outcomes in CFF-CBT versus TAU for youth with pediatric BD.

Understanding Early Age of Onset: a Review of the Last 5 Years

The age at onset of bipolar disorder ranging from childhood to adolescent to adult has significant implications for frequency, severity and duration of mood episodes, comorbid psychopathology, heritability, response to treatment, and opportunity for early intervention. There is increasing evidence that recognition of prodromal symptoms in at-risk populations and mood type at onset are important variables in understanding the course of this illness in youth. Very early childhood onset of symptoms including anxiety/depression, mood lability, and subthreshold manic symptoms, along with family history of a parent with early onset bipolar disorder, appears to predict the highest risk of early onset disorder with the most severe course.

Evaluation of Bipolar Disorder in Children and Adolescents Referred to a Mood Service: Diagnostic Pathways and Manic Dimensions

OBJECTIVES

Few studies have examined pediatric mental health services for early-onset bipolar disorder (BD). The goal of this study was to describe diagnostic pathways and manic dimensions in BD among referred children and adolescents.

METHODS

Data were obtained from a review of the charts of 814 subjects, 2 to 17 years of age, with a complaint of mood disturbances who were referred between 2003 and 2012 to a university-based child and adolescent clinic that specializes in mood disorders. After screening, eligible participants (N=494) were systematically assessed and followed to determine diagnoses on the basis of criteria in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision in accordance with the best-estimate approach. Manic symptoms were subjected to principal component analysis to investigate the dimensional bipolar profile of the sample.

RESULTS

Among the total help-seeking sample, approximately one third of the participants dropped out at intake and, after an average follow-up of 1.7 years, one third had been determined to meet criteria for BD and one third did not fulfill operational criteria for BD. The diagnostic status was changed in 35% of patients: approximately 10% were false positive (going from any bipolar diagnosis to a nonbipolar diagnosis) and approximately 25% were false negative (going from a nonbipolar diagnosis to any bipolar diagnosis). Most patients who converted to a bipolar diagnosis were initially labeled with major depressive disorder or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and had a longer follow-up period. Relevant manic dimensions were elation, grandiosity, and disruption, which explained 41.4% of total variance.

CONCLUSIONS

Regular reappraisal and follow-up of children and adolescents with mood disturbances provides a window for detection of BD (eg, of core manic dimensions). A coordinated and hierarchical connection among pediatric mental health services with different degrees of specialization is recommended.

Bipolar diagnosis in China: Evaluating diagnostic confidence using the Bipolarity Index

BACKGROUND

Diagnosis of bipolar disorder is inherently difficult. The goal of this study was to examine the utility and psychometric properties of the Bipolarity Index (BPx) in a population of patients treated in China.

METHODS

At nine Chinese health facilities participating in CAFÉ-BD, clinicians completed a standardized affective disorder evaluation for consecutive patients (N=615) with a clinical diagnosis of MDD and BPD and scored the Bipolarity Index. The investigators constructed ROC curves to determine the optimal cut off points to discriminate subjects in three clinical diagnostic groups: bipolar disorder (BPD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy (no psychiatric diagnosis) controls (HC). This study is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, number NCT02015143.

RESULTS

1) The cut-off score between the MDD and BPD groups was 42.0, with a sensitivity of 0.957 and specificity of 0.881 (Z=63.064, P<0.001); the cut-off score between the MDD and BPD II groups was 34.0, with a sensitivity of 0.810 and specificity of 0.855 (Z=20.174, P<0.001); and the cut-off score between the BPD II and BPD I groups was 57.0, with a sensitivity of 0.680 and specificity of 0.772 (Z=9.636, P<0.001). 2) Five domains contributed to the discrimination results. State-related domains (episode characteristics and course of illness) made greater contributions than trait-related domains (age of onset, family history, and treatment response).

LIMITATIONS

The data are purely descriptive. The BPD II sample and the family history dataset were small.

CONCLUSIONS

Our finding indicates good reliability and validity for the Chinese version of the BPx, which encourages its use as a measure of diagnostic confidence for bipolar spectrum disorders. Further prospective study is necessary to determine if the BPx is useful in identifying subgroups among MDD subjects at high risk for conversion to BPD.

Aging into Perceptual Control: A Dynamic Causal Modeling for fMRI Study of Bistable Perception

Aging is accompanied by stereotyped changes in functional brain activations, for example a cortical shift in activity patterns from posterior to anterior regions is one hallmark revealed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of aging cognition. Whether these neuronal effects of aging could potentially contribute to an amelioration of or resistance to the cognitive symptoms associated with psychopathology remains to be explored. We used a visual illusion paradigm to address whether aging affects the cortical control of perceptual beliefs and biases. Our aim was to understand the effective connectivity associated with volitional control of ambiguous visual stimuli and to test whether greater top-down control of early visual networks emerged with advancing age. Using a bias training paradigm for ambiguous images we found that older participants (n = 16) resisted experimenter-induced visual bias compared to a younger cohort (n = 14) and that this resistance was associated with greater activity in prefrontal and temporal cortices. By applying Dynamic Causal Models for fMRI we uncovered a selective recruitment of top-down connections from the middle temporal to Lingual gyrus (LIN) by the older cohort during the perceptual switch decision following bias training. In contrast, our younger cohort did not exhibit any consistent connectivity effects but instead showed a loss of driving inputs to orbitofrontal sources following training. These findings suggest that perceptual beliefs are more readily controlled by top-down strategies in older adults and introduce age-dependent neural mechanisms that may be important for understanding aberrant belief states associated with psychopathology.

Distinct relationships between social aptitude and dimensions of manic-like symptoms in youth

Difficulties with interpersonal relationships have been reported in children and adolescents with manic symptoms, even if they do not fulfil criteria for a manic episode. The role of social aptitude (SA) in youths with manic symptoms has never been examined in the general population. Moreover, no study has examined whether SA is differentially associated with dimensions of manic symptoms. We hypothesised that youth with predominantly undercontrol manic symptoms (characterised by irritability) would show lower levels of SA; conversely, youth with predominantly exuberant symptoms would show better than average social skills. Our sample comprised 5325 participants from the 2004 British Child and Adolescent Mental Health Survey (B-CAMHS04), mean age 10.3 years, SD = 3.3, 48 % girls. Manic symptoms were assessed with the Development and Wellbeing Assessment by interviewing parents and young people. Children and adolescents with manic symptoms had a lower SA score, compared to the general population by parent report, but not by self-report. SA score was higher in youths with predominantly exuberant manic symptoms compared to the general population; whereas the youths with predominantly undercontrol manic symptoms had lower SA scores by parent and self-report. Our results provide further evidence for the distinction between exuberant and undercontrol manic symptoms and highlight the need to focus on SA in future research.

Affective disorders and psychosis in youth

The significance of psychosis has yet to be fully understood and research is complicated because psychosis is often a state rather than trait occurrence. In youth, psychoticlike phenomena are common. Rates of lifetime psychotic symptoms are higher than rates of psychosis during a current episode of mania or depression, at least in youth. Rates vary widely between studies. Hallucinations are also more common than delusions in youth. Psychotic phenomena can be mood congruent or incongruent. A good mental status examination requires close questioning. There are several interviews that structure how questions are asked, and rating scales that help anchor severity.

Child Behavior Checklist-Mania Scale (CBCL-MS): development and evaluation of a population-based screening scale for bipolar disorder

CONTEXT

Early identification of Bipolar Disorder (BD) remains poor despite the high levels of disability associated with the disorder.

OBJECTIVE

We developed and evaluated a new DSM orientated scale for the identification of young people at risk for BD based on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and compared its performance against the CBCL-Pediatric Bipolar Disorder (CBCL-PBD) and the CBCL-Externalizing Scale, the two most widely used scales.

METHODS

The new scale, CBCL-Mania Scale (CBCL-MS), comprises 19 CBCL items that directly correspond to operational criteria for mania. We tested the reliability, longitudinal stability and diagnostic accuracy of the CBCL-MS on data from the TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a prospective epidemiological cohort study of 2230 Dutch youths assessed with the CBCL at ages 11, 13 and 16. At age 19 lifetime psychiatric diagnoses were ascertained with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. We compared the predictive ability of the CBCL-MS against the CBCL-Externalising Scale and the CBCL-PBD in the TRAILS sample.

RESULTS

The CBCL-MS had high internal consistency and satisfactory accuracy (area under the curve = 0.64) in this general population sample. Principal Component Analyses, followed by parallel analyses and confirmatory factor analyses, identified four factors corresponding to distractibility/disinhibition, psychosis, increased libido and disrupted sleep. This factor structure remained stable across all assessment ages. Logistic regression analyses showed that the CBCL-MS had significantly higher predictive ability than both the other scales.

CONCLUSIONS

Our data demonstrate that the CBCL-MS is a promising screening instrument for BD. The factor structure of the CBCL-MS showed remarkable temporal stability between late childhood and early adulthood suggesting that it maps on to meaningful developmental dimensions of liability to BD.