Brief report Bipolar disorder incidence between children and adolescents: A brief communication Modesto Leite Rolim-Neto b,n , Elizabeth Alves Silva a , Antonio Gilvan Teixeira Júnior b , Jesus de Sousa Cartaxo a , Nádia Nara Rolim Lima a , Vânia Barbosa Nascimento a , Maria do Socorro Vieira dos Santos a,b , Cláudio Gleidiston Lima da Silva a,b , Sonia Izabel Romero de Sousa a , Lucas da Silva Costa b , Pedro Januário Nascimento Neto b a Postgraduate Program in Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine of ABC, Santo André, São Paulo, Brazil b Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Federal University of Cariri, UFCA, Barbalha, Ceara, Brazil article info Article history: Received 4 September 2014 Received in revised form 24 September 2014 Accepted 30 September 2014 Available online 13 October 2014 Keywords: Bipolar disorder Incidence Children Adolescents abstract Background: Bipolar affective disorder is one of most injurious psychiatric diseases, not, rarely leading patient for suicide, and its prevalence keeps increasing worldwide, notably on low and, middle-income countries. For children living in northeast Brazil, extreme social conditions constitute, an environment of special vulnerability. Objective: Here we show that bipolar disorder incidence, between children and adolescents in this Brazilian region increased 34.2% from 2005 to 2014 and, in, the same area and age group, deaths provoked by self-caused injuries also became progressively, greater. Results: According to DATASUS, the Brazilian national databank for public health, information, in the last five years, we observed an increase of Bipolar Disorder incidence rates under,19 year-old of about 34.2% in the northeast region of Brazil, while the increase for Brazilian general, population was 12.4%. If considered only patients under 10, this number is even greater, of 47.2%. Content of Table 2 shows this disproportion, while comparing the advance of bipolar disorder, morbidity indices nationwide and worldwide. Conclusion: Children living in Brazil’s northeast, region are in a condition of extreme social disadvantage, what can be determinant for the recent and, sequential increase of bipolar disorder prevalence and the mortality in this age-group due to suicide, one of possible reflections of untreated mood disorders. For protecting these children is important to, identify the factors which prevent these illnesses and promote resilience for these young people. & 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Mental disorders have clearly negative influences for develop- ment of children and adolescents, provoking in these age groups irreversible damage for their personality and, more immediately, for their learning capacity (Fu-I, 2010). Bipolar affective disorder is one of most injurious psychiatric diseases, not rarely leading patient for suicide (Rush, 2003), and its prevalence keeps increasing worldwide, notably on low and middle-income countries (Collins et al., 2011). For children living in northeast Brazil, extreme social conditions consti- tute an environment of special vulnerability. Here we show that bipolar disorder incidence between children and adolescents in this Brazilian region increased 34.2% from 2005 to 2014 and, in the same area and age group, deaths provoked by self-caused injuries also became progressively greater (DATASUS, 2011, 2011). In the second half of last decade, mortality due to suicide between 10 and 19 years old achieved the maximum rate of 2.165 per 100,000 inhabi- tants, 20% greater than average worldwide indices (World Health Organization, 1999; Bertolote and Fleischmann, 2002). These trends reveal numerically the reality of social abandon- ment these children and adolescent face daily in their lives, even with the recent increase of population’s medium income and the relatively efficient governmental assistance programs for poor families. The worldwide-known positive changes in Brazilian economy were not followed by the expected providing of adequate public policies for young people, especially in the northeast region, leaving children and adolescents in contact with stressing factors, Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jad Journal of Affective Disorders http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2014.09.045 0165-0327/& 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author at: 284, Divino Salvador Street, Downtown, Barbalha, Ceara, 63180-000, Brazil. Tel.:/fax : +055(88)33125035. E-mail address: modestorolim@yahoo.com.br (M.L. Rolim-Neto). Journal of Affective Disorders 172 (2015) 171–174