by Kent Reedy

Created on: January 10, 2009   Last Updated: August 08, 2011

There is some controversy over whether it is ever a good idea to label a child as being "bipolar" - even many people who accept bipolar disorder as a valid diagnosis for adults don't think it should ever be applied to children.

But one thing that seems abundantly clear is that there are now way too many children being given that diagnosis. In a June 8th, 2008 article entitled "Researchers Fail to Reveal Full Drug Pay", the New York Times reported that there was a "40-fold increase" in the numbers of children diagnosed as bipolar from 1994 to 2003 - in other words, 40 times more children were given that diagnosis in 2003 than had been in 1994.

So either this affliction has suddenly become much more common than it ever was before, or the authorities have just recently discovered how widespread it is, after having previously failed to notice it, or they are currently over-diagnosing it in a very big way. The latter seems much more likely to me, especially when you consider what the implications are of labeling someone as bipolar.

Nowadays the biggest implication of a bipolar diagnosis for most people is that they will be given drugs - lots and lots of drugs. Many of these drugs are likely to be quite expensive.

Whether they are paid for directly by the person who they are prescribed for (or their family), or if they are paid for by some kind of insurance, the pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs will receive a lot of money for each new person diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Some of this money will be shared with prominent psychiatrists who speak on behalf of how wonderful the drugs are, or conduct clinical trials that somehow always end up showing the drugs to be very beneficial with little or no risk of serious side-effects.

The drug makers are especially glad to have their product be found helpful for groups of people who had never been thought of as potential customers before. So "key opinion leaders" in the field of mental health treatment can garner a lot of extra income for themselves if they urge that the bipolar appellation be applied to ever-increasing numbers of people, including children - and many have.

The same New York Times article referenced above also reported that investigations by U.S. Senator Charles Grassley (of the Senate Finance Committee) have revealed that one of the main backers of increased use of the childhood bipolar diagnosis, Dr. Joseph Biederman of Harvard University, received at least $1.6 million in consulting fees from

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