Commentary: Bipolar disorder in youth - what is it and where is it? - a commentary on Parry et al. (2018)

Parry and colleagues reexamine the 12 articles that comprise a widely cited, 2011 meta-analysis of community studies of pediatric bipolar that stated no differences exist between rates in the United States and other countries. This reexamination concludes not only are there in fact considerable differences in rates of bipolar disorder (both bipolar I disorder and bipolar spectrum disorder) but also the rates overall are lower than the meta-analysis stated. This editorial explains some of the reasons behind the overly enthusiastic reports of bipolar disorder rates in youth including definitional (what is pediatric and what is bipolar) and assessment ambiguities and the bona fide effort to explain the psychopathology underpinning explosive children. Although the questions of what prepubertal bipolar disorder is have themselves been polarizing, common ground is being increasingly found.