Diagnostic Criteria for Early onset Bipolar and Asperger's Syndrome: Are They Really as Different as We Think?

“Diagnostic Criteria for Early Onset Bipolar and Asperger’s Syndrome:

Are They Really as Different as We Think?”

In trying to compare and contrast early onset bipolar disorder and Asperger’s syndrome comes the arduous

task of separating the two, for as different as they appear, they are just as similar in many ways.

When diagnosing both “conditions”, because they both present with such overlapping symptoms, quite often,

they are misdiagnosed as each other. The disorders that look like bi-polar but really aren’t, are commonly

diagnosed as Aspergers. The same holds true for common misdiagnosis of Asperger’s toward bipolar. “The

most common disorders that either mimic or may exist along with pediatric bi-polar are: Asperger’s

syndrome…”

If taking hyperlexia into consideration, the medical evidence between both is equally suggestive. Delong and

Aldershof (1988) documented that “children with bi-polar disorder had especially high rates of special abilities

such as hyperlexia, calendar calculation and obsessive interests.” Correspondingly, Dr. Tony Atwood states

that: “We recognize that hyperlexia (an advanced ability in word recognition with relatively poor

comprehension of the words or storyline) is more common than we would expect in children with Asperger’s

syndrome” Most of the time, psychiatrists and therapists will look to genetics, family history and birth

complications for indications to diagnose. When discussing birth and prenatal complications, there is

substantiating evidence between the two. In an interview with Kiki Chang, M.D., Dir., Pediatric Bipolar

Disorders Program, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford, April 29, 2008, she stated “There have been

some studies that have found a higher incidence of obstetrical complications in children who have bipolar

disorder. In other words, when they were babies, there were some complications around their birth and during

the pregnancy of their mother.” In Lorna Wing’s (1981) original paper that first used the diagnostic term