Is My Child Bipolar Quiz: Bipolar Child Questionnaire

If you suspect your child may have bipolar disorder, you’ll want a quiz to determine, “Is my child bipolar?” Determining whether you child has bipolar disorder or another mental illness always needs to be done by a mental health professional such as a psychiatrist, but a childhood bipolar questionnaire can point you in the direction of seeking a formal diagnosis or not.

The Child Bipolar Questionnaire Instructions

According to the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation, the following are the instructions for the Child Bipolar Questionnaire – Version 2:

“My child has and/or had the following symptoms and/or behaviors. You may have noticed a behavior from as far back as early childhood or you may have observed it more recently. In either case, estimate how frequently the behavior has occurred since you first noticed it. In other words, please rate the symptoms and/or behaviors as they were at their most severe and/or prior to your child starting medication.

Then select a number in the “Frequency” column using the following key:

• Never or hardly ever – 1
• Sometimes – 2
• Often – 3
• Very often or almost constantly – 4”

Download the test: http://www.psbmed.com/pdf/teenChildBipolarQuestionnaireForm.pdf

Sample “Is My Child Bipolar?” Quiz Questions

Sample questions on this bipolar quiz for children includes: [My child:]

• has difficulty rising in the AM
• displays excessive distress when separated from the family
• exhibits excessive anxiety or worry

The bipolar child questionnaire has 65 questions in all.

Scoring the Bipolar Child Questionnaire

The Bipolar Child Questionnaire can be scored in a number of ways – only a professional trained in this test can give you a full picture.

That said, the easiest way to score the Bipolar Child Questionnaire is the following:

• Add up all the items on the test rated a “3” or “4.”
• The higher the total score, the more likely the presence of bipolar disorder and the greater the severity of the illness.

Note that this test may also be useful in the screening for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children as well.

According to the Juvenile Bipolar Research Foundation:

“The Child Bipolar Questionnaire cannot make a definitive diagnosis, which requires a careful diagnostic evaluation by a physician, nurse practitioner, or other qualified clinicians. Only an experienced diagnostician with a full understanding of the family history, as well as the symptoms and behaviors that the child exhibits, is qualified to make a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. The Child Bipolar Questionnaire may serve as an integral part of such an evaluation.”

The best thing you can do if you suspect your child has bipolar disorder is to print out the full Child Bipolar Questionnaire and bring it to a qualified professional such as a psychiatrist.