Motor dysfunction

What are antecedents of bipolar disorder?

Antecedents, including motor functioning, are usually subtle deviations in development that may become evident during childhood or adolescence. The presence of these deviations may foreshadow the later development of bipolar disorder, however most children who exhibit deviations do not develop the disorder. Studies exploring antecedents are ideally based on representative, population-based samples that follow the group from birth through childhood and adolescence to adulthood.

What is the evidence on motor dysfunction as an antecedent of bipolar disorder?

Moderate to low quality evidence suggests a large effect of poor motor development in the childhood (at ~ 3 years of age) of people who developed mania in adulthood. There may also be more tics and unsteadiness, and more neurological problems in general in the childhood of people who developed affective psychosis in adulthood. Affective psychosis is a broad category that includes bipolar disorder.

October 2021

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Last updated at: 3:47 pm, 29th March 2022
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