Mood swings can be part of normal adolescence, but extreme ranges can be a sign of bipolar disorder, a mental illness also known as manic depression.

A person with the disorder has episodes of deep depression alternating with “manic” periods consisting of elation, sleeplessness, hyperactivity, grandiosity and/or irritability.

A recent study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health found the number of children and adolescents diagnosed with bipolar disorder in recent years has increased forty fold. The question is why.

Dr. Bob McKelvey, head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at OHSU suspects part of the increase is due to misdiagnoses. After working abroad in Australia for several years, he returned to the US in 1998. “I was struck by the fact that it seemed like half the kids were diagnosed with bipolar and were on Depakote ( a common medication for the disorder),” he said. “It hadn’t been that way when I left a few years earlier.”

Yet, McKelvey says there is evidence symptoms of bipolar appear earlier than once thought, appearing at the beginning of puberty rather than in late teens and early twenties.

One symptom that distinguishes bipolar disorder from others is the sleeplessness that occurs during manic episodes.

Sean Freeze, age 40, who lives in Aloha, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 16. “I didn’t realize that staying up late every night and getting up early every morning early and having fun all day was not normal,” he said.

The flip side came when his mood would swing the other way; he would become so depressed he would not want to get out of bed. Ultimately, Freeze had a psychotic breakdown that landed him in a psychiatric hospital.

These days, he takes daily medication to manage his bipolar disorder.

So does 15-year-old Victoria Loonstyne-Barone, an Aloha High School student who was diagnosed with bipolar at 13. “Bipolar is like this little thing on my shoulder that is bringing all this temptation” she said in an interview with Newschannel 8. “I have to take meds for it. You gotta take your meds. They help you.”

Because bipolar can cause stress throughout a family, parents and other family members often benefit from information and support offered through NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

“Often times with families, I tell them they’re not alone,” said Melody Axe, Family Support Coordinator of NAMI of Washington County. “These illnesses affect the brain. But it’s no different from any other illness.”

For more information about NAMI: NAMI.org