Tuesday, May 30, 2006 (HealthDay News) -- A new study conducted at the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health, shows that bipolar youths misinterpret facial expressions to be hostile more often than their healthy counterparts. This misinterpretation could explain the mania and depression that plague many children with bipolar disorder, and cause problems with friendships, school and family.

   The findings were reported in this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

   "Since children seem to have a more severe form of the disorder, they may provide a clearer window into the underlying illness process than adult onset cases," explained Dr. Ellen Leibenluft of the NIMH's Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program. "Our results suggest that children with bipolar disorder see emotion where other people don't. "

   Researchers also discovered that the left amygdala, which registers fear in the brain, reacted more in children with bipolar disorder than those without when they were asked to rate the hostility of a neutral facial expression vs. a non-emotional feature. The more a child viewed the expressions as hostile, the more reaction was seen in the amygdala.

   This brain activity was measured using MRI in 22 bipolar children and 21 healthy children.  Activity was no different between bipolar and healthy children when rating non-emotional features, which confirms that the differences between the groups of children are specifically related to emotional processes.

   "By finding a brain imaging trait that may be more selective than current clinical criteria, this line of research might help us refine our definition of pediatric bipolar disorder," said NIMH director Dr. Thomas Insel.

By Julia Nelson

   You can count on DBSA National to keep up with the latest technology.  This time, they will be offering a podcast on their website starting mid-October.   Just go to www.DBSAlliance.org  to access it.

   For those of you who are wondering, podcasts are audio files downloadable to MP3 players.  It is much like listening to a radio program that you can access anytime.  If you don't have an MP3 player, don't worry.  You will be able to listen to the audio files on the website from your computer.

   Two podcasts will be released every month covering topics