Bipolar Teens are More Likely to Abuse Harmful Substances

Bipolar disorder is a severe mental illness that affects millions of American teenagers. While this severe mental illness can be overwhelming and debilitating, through a combination of medication and professional counseling, it also one that can be effectively managed. If you are the parent of a bipolar teenage boy or girl, hopefully, this article with be able to further educate you on the mental illness and persuade you to seek immediate treatment for your at-risk teenage child.

Bipolar Teens: More Likely to Abuse Harmful Substances

As every parent of a manically depressed teen can attest, Bipolar Disorder is a condition that can significantly damage the life of a teenage boy or girl. Now, a recent study coming out of the state of Massachusetts provides additional motivation to parents of bipolar teens - who have yet to find a treatment solution for their teen’s often erratic, volatile and mood-swinging condition - to seek treatment for their mentally ill child. According to these researchers, bipolar teens are much more likely to develop a substance abuse and/or nicotine addiction than teens who do not suffer from severe mental illness.

"The addition of new research seems to reaffirm that teens who suffer from bipolar disorder become increasingly at-risk of developing addictive traits as they age."

Study Finds Bipolar Teens At Significant Risk of Developing an Addiction    

According to a study that was published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, teens who suffer from bipolar are more likely to develop a substance addiction.

A behavioral research team from Massachusetts General Hospital conducted a five-year-long study that included a total number of 100 bipolar teenagers. After five years of their initial interview, however, the research team was only able to track down 68 of the original volunteers.

After re-interviewing the remaining 68 volunteers - who had since become young adults - the researchers concluded that those who had bipolar were at a much higher risk of developing a substance addiction problem than the controlled group – an additional group of 100 teens who did not register as bipolar – that they initially interviewed five years prior. The Massachusetts researchers were surprised to find out that the group of bipolar teens had a 49% of developing a substance abuse disorder almost double than that of the controlled group who still boasted a rather high 26% chance.

While these findings seem to be staggering, the research team was not yet finished with their eye-opening, scientific revelations.

"We also made another interesting finding — that those originally diagnosed with bipolar disorder who continued to have symptoms five years later were at an even higher risk for cigarette smoking and substance use disorder than those whose symptoms were reduced either because of remission from bipolar disorder or from treatment," said lead author of both studies Dr. Timothy Wilens, Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Mass.

Study Provides Hope for Parents of Bipolar Teens

"Those originally diagnosed with bipolar disorder who continued to have symptoms five years later were at an even higher risk for cigarette smoking and substance use disorder than those whose symptoms were reduced either because of remission from bipolar disorder or from treatment..." -Dr. Timothy Wilens

While some would suggest that this study just adds additional stress to parents of a bipolar teen, the troubled teen experts here at Elk Mountain Academy would argue that it should instead provide parents with only motivational stress to find treatment for their emotionally suffering teen.

Moreover, this revolutionary study should also provide parents with hope. Lest we forget, in addition to proving bipolar teens’ likelihood of abusing harmful substances, the researchers also proved that those who received treatment for their illness were significantly less likely to self-medicate their symptoms with substance abuse. In other words, bipolar teens who receive proper treatment for their condition can live a perfectly normal, healthy and successful life.