Monthly Archives: February 2011

My book, Your Child Does Not Have Bipolar Disorder: How Bad Science and Good Public Relations Created the Diagnosis, describes the failures of organized psychiatry, the pharmaceutical industry and the media that led to the adoption and frequent diagnosis of a rare or nonexistent disorder.  Making the diagnosis of bipolar disorder in youth proved harmful to the health of children and the reputation of psychiatry as a science.   An important measure of the extent of the problem is found in the statistics of changes in diagnosis rates. Between 1994 and 2003 the percentages of mental health office visits for bipolar disorder in youth increased from less than half a percent (0.42%) to more than six and a half percent (6.67%), and between 1996 and 2004 the percent of youth leaving psychiatric hospitals with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder went up 400%!