Yes, I know, that’s a pretty extreme headline, but I don’t think it’s far from the truth. In my backyard, a psychiatrist (who has since taken paid leave from his job) unbelievably diagnosed a girl at 2 1/2 years old with not just one, but two mental disorders — ADHD and bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is an adult diagnosis, rarely diagnosed in children. And virtually never diagnosed in a child younger than 5 years old.
Why?
Because children are naturally undergoing constant developmental changes largely determined by their environment that makes a diagnosis of a mental disorder challenging. A child that is “acting out” is often just exhibiting age-appropriate behavior for their age. Children are supposed to be children, not tiny adults meant to act appropriately in all social situations. And parents are tasked with the responsibility for raising children with proper social skills and such. Most parents are up to the task, but some, sadly, are not.
Two such parents can be seen in the Riley’s. Michael Riley, 34, and Carolyn Riley, 32, allegedly killed their daughter by regularly giving her drug overdoses, ostensibly to keep her calm and help her sleep. They pleaded not guilty yesterday to first-degree murder charges and were ordered held without bail.
The disturbing part is that a psychiatrist, of all professionals, diagnosed the dead child with these two very serious, long-term mental disorders:
Carolyn Riley’s lawyer [...] raised questions about the psychiatrist, Dr. Kayoko Kifuji, who prescribed the medication for Rebecca and diagnosed her at age 2 1/2 with attention deficit hyperactive disorder and bipolar disorder.
There’s a reason the DSM is divided into adult mental disorders and childhood disorders — the research doesn’t provide nearly the empirical research evidence for diagnoses of bipolar disorder in children. If a doctor makes such a diagnosis, they’re doing so largely based upon their own experiences, not those of science or research.
And unfortunately, many parents are not adequately informed about the serious strength of prescription medications — especially for a child as young as 3 or 4 years of age. Medications given at these ages is a very serious matter. Parents must be fully informed of the strength of prescription medications at this age and warned never to overprescribe medications to children this young. The unfortunate, tragic consequences of doing so is played out in the news today, and it is so very sad to read.
But it’s my opinion that if the psychiatrist was doing her job, she would’ve never diagnosed such a young child with such serious disorders so early on in the young infant’s life, nor prescribed such strong psychiatric medications for the concerns.
Tragic.
(18 votes, average: 4 out of 5)
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From Psych Central's World of Psychology:
The Ongoing Child Bipolar Diagnosis Controversy - World of Psychology (3/19/2007)
One Comment to
“Very Early Diagnosis Leads to Girl’s Death”
Yes, not only is it an extreme headline, John, but it’s an outrageous one.
“Very early diagnosis leads to girl’s death.”
Who on earth do you think you are? Fox News? Without one iota of evidence, you blame this child’s death on the psychiatrist, on the diagnosis, on the psychotropic medications, on Dr. Biederman, etc. That is just so disturbing.
It is one thing to issue warnings in a general way about exercising cautions, but you were calling for this doctor’s head on a platter.
You should at least straighten out the record with the actual facts of the case, including that the four medications given (from all that I understand, to EXCESS, by the PARENTS), included two over-the-county cold/cough medications.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 7 Feb 2007
