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Prevalence in children

What is prevalence of bipolar disorder in children?

Prevalence quantifies the proportion of individuals in a population who have a disorder during a specific time period, while incidence refers to the number of new cases that develop in a population during a specific time period. In disorders of short duration, incidence and prevalence rates may be similar, however with disorders of long duration, such as bipolar disorder, there can be variation between the two. Current, or ‘point’ prevalence is the proportion of individuals who have the disorder at a given point in time, ‘period’ prevalence measures the proportion of individuals who have the disorder during a specified period (e.g. one year), a ‘lifetime’ prevalence is the proportion of individuals in the population who have ever had the disorder.

What is the evidence on prevalence of bipolar disorder in children?

Moderate quality evidence finds the current prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorders in children is around 4%. Rates were higher in studies using broad diagnostic measures (8.6%), in older samples (8.3%), and in studies using lifetime rates (6.4%).

October 2021

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Last updated at: 1:05 pm, 5th April 2022
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Fact Sheet Technical Commentary
Tags:  Children and adolescents

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