Mental Health Dictionary May Exaggerate Instances of Pediatric Mental Disorders

Being a kid is tough. There's no two ways about it, and remembering back to your preteen stages, dealing with all the emotions, confusion and anxiety were particularly difficult and stressful, especially for the youngsters going through similar situations now.

Yet, when do explosive temper tantrums in your child cross the line into a mood disorder?

A new addition to the mental health dictionary, the DSM, has prompted many protests that some psychiatrist and parents believe may be exaggerating a normal part of childhood into a mental disorder that may lead to the unnecessary ingestion of certain medications. 

Live Science notes that many pediatric cases of bipolar disorder grew by 40-fold between 1994-1995, according to the research published in 2007 in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Researchers note that many of the children exhibited a pattern that was not significantly consistent with bipolar disorder. Furthermore, many who were diagnosed did not have clear cut episodes of irritability, mania or depression. Many experts feel that in the future and with this addition, some children were and could continue to be wrongly diagnosed.

Medications to treat bipolar disorder can be particularly risky as they can include significant weight gain that may increase later in life risk of diabetes or heart problems.

Allen Frances notes that this previous edition of DSM, which changes the new DMDD diagnosis, "will exacerbate, not relieve, the already excessive and inappropriate use of medications young children," via Live Science.

The proposed criteria would include: "severe recurrent temper outbursts that are grossly out of proportion in intensity or duration to the situation" at least three times a week, leading David Dobbs, who writes the "Neuron Culture" blog, notes.

What do you think?