Yep, children can be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and it is happening with increasing frequency. One study reported that the number of pediatric bipolar diagnoses increased 4,000 percent between 1994 and 2003.* Around 90 percent of those children received prescriptions for powerful medications (Moreno, et al., 2007). Short of a contagious epidemic, such a massive change in diagnostic trends is hard to account for. Clearly, we’re still working out the kinks in this diagnosis.