13 year old boy diagnosed Bi polar after 10 minutes?

[nckdl]

My 13 year old step son was at the pediatrician's office for an illness and only after 15 minutes he was back with a prescription for Depakote with a diagnosis of bipolar. He said he told the Dr. he couldn't control his anger sometimes and his mom told him it ran in the family so he prescribed it. Isn't that a little soon to diagnose someone so young so fast? He just turned 13 and he seems fine to me except having teenage hormone fits. I would hate for him to take Depakote if not needed but his mom thinks it's just great. It's just sad that teenagers can't be teenagers anymore without us dianosing them with a mental disorder and giving them medicine to make them "behave" the way we want them too.

[lsyorke, RN]

This makes me NUTS! Anything off of emotional flatline is diagnosed as bipolar. 13 year old boys/girls are moody, angry, sweet, adorable, and every other emotion on the map. To drug a child after 10 minutes is criminal.

If anger is a problem, then find a good therapist...a lifelong solution without the side effects.

I allowed my son to be put on paxil for anxiety at age 13(3 different doctors) and it was the worse mistake in my and his life. He is he reason there are black box warnings on antidepressants. If I knew then, what I know now he never would have taken any drugs and would have had therapy...sadly I believed the doctors and didn't trust my gut. He is paying the price in long term effects of paxil use.

[Batman24]

This is pretty scary. A psychiatrist would make this disagnosis and certainly not after 10 minutes. He could be bi-polar or he could be a moody teen. I would urge the parents to get a second opinion here before resorting to meds. This could just be a teen going through a tough time versus one with a mental illness. A diagnosis like this one takes time and often the symptoms have been ongoing. Make sure it is a good doctor and one who won't be afraid to make an independent diagnosis. Too often we see people given wrong diagnosis where mental illness or even just bad behavior (bratty doesn't always equal ADD) is concerned.