Abstract
This book has internationally renowned child and adolescent psychiatric experts as contributors to the collection. The substantial increase in evidence-based publications on bipolar disorder (BD) in recent years has led to a better understanding of the clinical manifestation, treatment, progression and singularities in youth, in order to apply the famous aphorism ‘children are not little adults’ to psychiatry.
The book is divided into three main sections: diagnostic, treatment and neurobiology. In the first section, there is a clear and comparative analysis of BD’s presentation in youth and adults. The authors introduce the shared and specific characteristics of each age group in a readily intelligible manner. In the second section, the authors go beyond the therapeutic guidelines, discussing dose of medication, empirical support through clinical trials, monitoring side effects, psychotherapy and an interesting novelty – evidence-based support for complementary and alternative medical approaches. The last section is up to date, including debates on the findings of research into neurodevelopment of BD in youth and what we can expect in the near future. In addition to these topics, there are many others that deserve the attention of the reader, for example, nonheritable risk factors for BDs, psychotherapeutic strategies for treating youth with or at risk of BD and the neural effects of intervention in pediatric BD.
Another strength of the book is the section Ethical consideration for treating at-risk populations and a discussion as to how best to evaluate the risks and benefits of early interventions. The authors illustrate using clinical cases, making for both more dynamic reading and a reasonably close approximation to clinical practice. This is achieved by a discussion of comorbid cases and the nuances to be found in everyday life presentations. There was no mention of the interface between the pediatric and psychiatric emergency departments and to controversial patient admission. More discussion of inpatient treatments would have been very welcome. Although the psychiatric comorbidities were well detailed, there was no corresponding discussion of the clinical ones.
The contribution of several authors offers different perspectives on the same subject, which could have easily fragmented the book. However, the editors manage to maintain a unidirectional and dimensional view of BD in youth. Strakowski, DelBello and Adler turn a controversial, complex and specific subject into pleasant, didactic and understandable reading with updated review for the specialist, providing a general guide for psychiatrists and pediatricians, as well as other mental health professionals.