The Atypical Emotional Development in Adolescents with Bipolar Disorder and Relevant Interventions

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) has become a serious mental problem in the group of adolescents. The main symptoms of BD are depression, (hypo)mania, anxiety, and functional disabilities. The symptoms of the two subtypes of BD are different. The problem is that the probability of misdiagnosis is high, which may cause the non-serious symptoms to exacerbate. The methods of researching atypical emotional development include measuring the level of mood instability and examining the deficit in facial emotion and family factors. The symptoms of BD patients are highly connected with a high level of mood instability and a high level of inappropriate self-sacrifice from parents and relatives. The deficit of facial emotion is also one of the atypical processes. Dialectical Behavior Treatment is useful to decrease the level of depression and relieve BD symptoms. The probability of adolescents having BD is associated with mood instability. BD patients showed faster reactions to fearful faces and made mistakes in processing angry faces. Therapy barely influences BD symptoms, but dialectical behavior therapy had a great effect in remitting symptoms of BD. In that case, future study should pay more attention to the atypical emotional development and the precautions. This review can provide some guidance to relevant future intervention studies and practices for at-risk adolescents.