Rapid Increase in Rates of Bipolar Diagnosis in Youth: “True” Bipolarity or Misdiagnosed Severe Disruptive Behavior Disorders?

In their study on US trends in the outpatient diagnosis of bipolar disorder (BD), Moreno et al¹ reported a nearly 40-fold increase of BD diagnoses from 1994 to 2003 in children and adolescents 19 years and younger. Increasing BD prevalence rates in youth are a matter of ongoing controversy in international child psychiatry. We would like to contribute to this discussion from a European perspective.