Prevalence and Socio-demographic Factors of Bipolar Mood Disorders in Children and Adolescents: Identification of the Principal Predictors

Objectives: Our objective was to perform a cross-sectional research to measure the prevalence of bipolar mood disorder (BMD) in Iranian children and adolescents and its comorbidity with psychiatric disorders. Also, the main purpose of this study was to characterize the main risk factors for BMD in children and adolescents. Method: This work was an analytical cross-sectional study. In a community-based study, we sampled 1000 children and adolescents 6-18 years in each province by ‎the multistage cluster sampling method. The total valid sample size reached 29,812. ‎The instructed clinical psychologists completed the Persian version of Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia ‎Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). Furthermore, demographic data were obtained. ‎ To  analyze data, descriptive statistics, multinomial and multiple logistic regressions were utilized to evaluate the relationships. Results: Total prevalence rates for BMD were 0.29%; it was 0.26% in males and 0.29% in females. BMD rates were larger in children and adolescents whose mothers had an occupation.  Also, after controlling for effective variables (such as sex and age), location (rural or urban citizen), father’s education, and psychiatric hospitalization in mother or father, none predicted BMD significantly. Moreover, patients with comorbidities showed a superior prevalence than those without comorbidities, ranging from 1.9% for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and encopresis to 39.22% for oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Conclusion: BMD was more prevalent among women. gender or father education were not risk factors for bipolar mood symptoms. Several factors such as maternal education and maternal job were also important for prevalence of bipolar mood symptoms.