Bipolar depression (manic-depressive disease) in early adolescence

Bipolar Depression is rare in early adolescence. Since only rare cases were described in the literature, every case is important. In this article we described three cases of Bipolar Depression who were hospitalized in our Adolescent Unit during the past three years. All of them started at age 13--14. It is important to diagnose this illness in order to administer the required treatment in the acute phase and preventive treatment afterwards. Our experience indicates that treatment for early adolescents is identical with treatment for adults and calls for the same dosage.