Hello,

My son was diagnosed a week ago with bipolar. He turns 9 at the end of this month. I have MS and he also has neurological complaints so once his mood stabilizes the psychiatrist wants me to get him tested for multiple sclerosis also. Does anyone else here on the board have MS in their family? I guess MS and bipolar can sometimes go together from what I've read online.

Hoping things will get easier. The doctor increased his risperdal this week. So far no side effects but no improvement in mood either. It was a very low dose he was started on though.

Would be nice to hear from some of you.

Sincerely,
Julie

Hi,
I don't have access to medical journal data bases, but quick google search does show that people are investigating how MS and BP might run together in higher numbers than coincidence would suggest.

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/...tract/143/1/94

For childhood bipolar
-google Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation

--get a copy of the The Bipolar Child: The Definitive and Reassuring Guide to Childhood's Most Misunderstood Disorder Third Edition by Demitri Md Papolos and Janice Papolos
This is considered the most thorough and definitve book on childhood bipolar.

-- Here is a web site created by the authors of that book. http://www.bipolarchild.com/

-- NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness can have support groups for families in your town. Some communities are quite successful in offering support.

There is much hope. Remember that you can find help (not much help here since our board is very quite.)

I have no children but if I did, I might try some dietary and general wellness approaches along with the med approaches.
Many folks with bp do well with whole foods (cooking at home . . . ), having low stress, having a daily routine, getting very good sleep, getting exercise, getting sunshine weather permitting. . . .

I have no children so I cannot offer my own experience.

I hope that you find help.
Keep reaching out until you find what you want.
Good luck.

M.

No MS in the family. But we also have found that the bipolar is really just another symptom of a complex problem that is in our family. We have other autoimmune issues involving the gut, nutrition, mitochondrial function and sleep and with neurological manifestations.

In our opinion it is all one and the same. We found that by helping the symptoms manifesting in other parts of the body, the psychiatric symptoms in the brain were helped as well (even though they had been diagnosed separately as mental illnesses).

To us, the categorization into bipolar or other mental type illnesses did not elucidate the pathology. It merely obfuscated it. It was yet another diagnosis when it should have just been seen as a symptom of something else, even if at the time, the doctors did not know what that was.

There are some interesting information around such as http://www.bipolarchild.com , http://www.itsnotmental.com , http://www.bpkids.org and a host of autism sites that actually may have a lot of information you can use to help your child's biological issues.

not sure if you ever read this thread....

Welcome Julie.

Donna