Bipolar Disorder Community

This is probably a good one to get Dr. G to answer.

Dear Bostonrocks,

There is a child psychiatrist in California named Dr. Daniel Amen who has written popular books espousing his own views that a number of psychiatric conditions, including ADHD, can be subtyped using a type of neuroimaging called SPECT scans. SPECT scans are not recognized by the general medical community as diagnostically relevant for any psychiatric disorders. Nevertheless, Dr. Amen decided from his own impressions that there are 6 types of ADHD identifiable from these scans, including one that he rather fancifully called "the ring of fire" which he believes is some kind of hybrid between ADHD and bipolar disorder. Dr. Amen's views on this are not reflected in mainstream psychiatry or medicine and have been criticized by many authorities as nonscientific. Dr. Amen also sells various kinds of vitamins and nutraceuticals through his website that promise to magically fix attention and memory problems.

In terms of the views of traditional psychiatry, ADHD is a childhood disorder that persists into adulthood in about half of cases. Unlike bipolar disorder, ADHD does not involve recurrent periods of depression, or psychosis, or decreased need for sleep, or expansive mood. In children with bipolar disorder, 80-90% will also show signs of ADHD because of the great overlap in cognitive symptoms. In adults with bipolar disorder, about 10% may also have ADHD, and if both are present, it is customary to treat both as separate conditions.

- Dr. G.

Thank you very much. I really appreciate the help.