title: Treatment guidelines for children and adolescents with bipolar disorder.
abstract: Clinicians who treat children and adolescents with bipolar disorder desperately need current treatment guidelines. These guidelines were developed by expert consensus and a review of the extant literature about the diagnosis and treatment of pediatric bipolar disorders. The four sections of these guidelines include diagnosis, comorbidity, acute treatment, and maintenance treatment. These guidelines are not intended to serve as an absolute standard of medical or psychological care but rather to serve as clinically useful guidelines for evaluation and treatment that can be used in the care of children and adolescents with bipolar disorder. These guidelines are subject to change as our evidence base increases and practice patterns evolve.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical, OH 45267-0559, USA. robert.kowatch@uc.edu
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kowatch
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fristad
authors.forename: Boris
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Birmaher
authors.forename: Karen Dineen
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Findling
authors.forename: Martha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hellander
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000465:Algorithms; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D006801:Humans
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents