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. 2011 Oct;39(7):925-37.
doi: 10.1007/s10802-011-9520-8.

Dimensions and latent classes of episodic mania-like symptoms in youth: an empirical enquiry

Argyris Stringaris  1 , Daniel Stahl, Paramala Santosh, Robert Goodman
Affiliations

Dimensions and latent classes of episodic mania-like symptoms in youth: an empirical enquiry

Argyris Stringaris et al. J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2011 Oct.

Abstract

The dramatic increase in diagnostic rates of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents in the USA has led to an intense interest in the phenomenology of the disorder. Here we present data from a newly-developed instrument to assess episodic mania-like symptoms in youth in a large population-based sample (N = 5326) using parent- and self-report. We found that a substantial proportion of children screened positive for having episodes of "going high" and were at an increased risk for morbidity and impairment. Using factor analysis, we identified that episodic mania-like symptoms comprised two dimensions: An under-controlled dimension that was associated with significant impairment, and a low-risk exuberant dimension. Using latent class analysis, we identified a small group of children scoring high on a range of manic symptoms and suffering from severe psychosocial impairment and morbidity. Our results carry implications for the nosology and psychosocial impairment associated with episodic mood changes in young people.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Latent classes for bipolar symptoms in the community parent report. b Latent classes for bipolar symptoms in the community self report. The items are presented on the horizontal axis ordered according to whether they were predominantly loading on the under-control or exuberance factor (based on the difference score between the loadings). The vertical axis represents the probability of scoring "a lot" (normalised by the average probability acrosss classes) for a given item conditional upon membership to one of there classes (each indicated by different colours). "interm" is an abbreviation for intermediate
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
a Parent reported latent classes and their association with psychiatric disorders. b Self reported latent classes and their association with psychiatric disorders
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
A four-classes solution for the LCA by parent report.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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