Stanford's Pediatric Bipolar Disorders Program, one of only two sites on the West Coast to study the disorder in children, is the focus of an article in today's San Francisco Chronicle. The piece also discusses the work of child psychiatrist Kiki Chang, MD, who founded the clinic in 1997:
"We think this is one of the more inheritable disorders, so a lot of our research focuses on children with a parent with bipolar," Chang said. "We have over 300 families in our research program. And we see families for clinical care for medication management and psychotherapy. Our primary thrust is to figure out through genes, biological markers and symptoms who will develop which disorders."
Chang and his team recently completed a yearlong study with researchers at UCLA and the University of Colorado looking at family-focused therapy, which combines education about the disorder, improving communication and developing problem-solving skills. The goal is to decrease stress and increase support and communication.
"So far, the preliminary results are very promising," Chang said...
