A laser beam focus will shine on pediatric bipolar disorder to highlight the nuances of this highly complex early onset illness. A framework is offered to gain a full understanding of the mood dysregulation and associated multi-domain cognitive problems. The scientific story of the brain functional operations will offer explanatory power to the clinical picture. How medications are chosen, how decisions are made, and how they repair brain dysfunction will be explained in an understandable language.
Most importantly, in addition to the impaired brain mechanisms, there are highly personalized dynamics in each family that are splayed. Every member of the family is impacted by the illness, and every family is unique. The most important ingredient in the delivery of the treatment is astute attention to those key family dynamics and the life at school- in offering precise solutions than rigid and blanket like interventions. The ABCD Model:Assessment-Brain Mechanisms-Chemical interventions with medications-Dynamics of the family carefully examined at a personalized level will ultimately offer a comprehensive grip in dealing with the pediatric bipolar disorder. This talk is based on 25+ years of clinical, research and teaching experience, a working life-time obsession of Dr. Mani Pavuluri in caring for these children and their families.
Mani Pavulluri is MD PhD, Distinguished Fellow of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), Berger-Colbeth Chair in Child Psychiatry, and the Founding Director of the Pediatric Brain Research And Intervention (BRAIN) Center and the Pediatric Mood Disorders Program at UIC.