If Your Adolescent Has Bipolar Disorder An Essential Resource for Parents

The authoritative guide to understanding and helping a teenager with bipolar disorder.

While coping with teenage moodiness can be difficult under any circumstances, it can be especially challenging if a teenager has a serious mood disorder. This concise, readable book is the definitive guide to understanding and getting effective help for adolescents with bipolar disorder, designed for parents and other adults in contact with afflicted teens. It combines the most current scientific expertise available today--including the newest treatments and medications and the latest research findings on bipolar disorder--with no-nonsense, hands-on advice from parents who have faced this mood disorder in their own children.

Among other topics, the book addresses the roots of bipolar disorder, red flags to look out for, treatment options for young people, and practical strategies for helping a teen cope at home and at school. It concludes on a hopeful note, by reviewing the latest scientific evidence on treating this mood disorder. A growing body of research now shows that early diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder may reduce the severity of the disease, both now and in the future. Including chapters on sex, drugs, and social media, and life after high school, this book will provide the information and tools parents need to help adolescents achieve the best possible outcome.

Dwight L. Evans, MD, is the Joseph and Madonna DiGiacomo Professor and Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Neuroscience at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Chair of the Annenberg Foundation Adolescent Mental Health Commission on Depression and Bipolar Disorder and an editor of Treating and Preventing Adolescent Mental Health Disorders. He has received numerous awards for his work on mood disorders including the Klerman Award from the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance and the Beck Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Tami D. Benton, MD, is the Chair of Psychiatry at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and an expert in children's mental health. She is the President Elect of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the largest association for pediatric mental health in the United States.

Katherine Ellison is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent, and author and coauthor of a dozen books, including The Mommy Brain: How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter and ADHD: What Everyone Needs to Know®.

Introduction
Chapter 1: Understanding Bipolar Disorder
Chapter 2: Treatment: Medication
Chapter 3: Treatment: Psychotherapy
Chapter 4: Finding a Provider
Chapter 5: Helping at Home
Chapter 6: Sex, Drugs, and Social Media
Chapter 7: Surviving School
Chapter 8: Life after High School
Chapter 9: Coping with Crises
Conclusion
Glossary
Bibliography
Resources
Appendix
Index