Psychological Disorders 565percentage of children with ADHD go on to develop bipolar disorder. Recent evidence
has found significantly higher rates of ADHD among relatives of individuals with bipolar
disorder and a higher prevalence of bipolar disorder among relatives of individuals with
ADHD (Faraone et al., 2012). The symptoms of bipolar disorder include irrational think-
ing and other manic symptoms that are not present in ADHD (Geller et al., 1998). Confu-
sion between the two disorders arises because hyperactivity (excessive movement and an
inability to concentrate) is a symptom of both disorders. In one study, researchers com-
pared children diagnosed with both bipolar disorder and ADHD to children diagnosed
with ADHD only on measures of academic performance and a series of neurological tests
(Henin et al., 2007). They found that the two groups responded in very similar ways,
showing the same deficits in information-processing abilities, with only one exception:
The children with both disorders performed more poorly on one measure of processing
speed when compared to children with only ADHD. The researchers concluded that the
neurological deficits often observed in children with bipolar disorder are more likely to
be due to the ADHD than to the bipolar disorder itself. Children with bipolar disorder
also seem to suffer from far more severe emotional and behavioral problems than those
with ADHD (Ferguson-Noyes, 2005; McDougall, 2009).
Causes of Disordered Mood
14.10 Compare and contrast behavioral, social cognitive, and biological
explanations for depression and other disorders of mood.
Explanations of depression and other disorders of mood come from the perspectives
of behavioral, social cognitive, and biological theories as well as genetics.
Behavioral theorists link depression to learned helplessness (Seligman, 1975,
1989), whereas social cognitive theorists point to distortions of thinking such as
blowing negative events out of proportion and minimizing positive, good events
(Beck, 1976, 1984). to Learning Objective 5.12. In the social cognitive view,
depressed people continually have negative, self-defeating thoughts about them-
selves, which depress them further in a downward spiral of despair. Learned helpless-
ness has been linked to an increase in such self-defeating thinking and depression in
studies with people who have experienced uncontrollable, painful events (Abramson
et al., 1978, 1980). This link does not necessarily mean that negative thoughts cause
depression; it may be that depression increases the likelihood of negative thoughts
(Gotlib et al., 2001). One study found that when comparing adolescents who were
depressed to those who were not, the depressed group faced risk factors specifically
associated with the social cognitive environment, such as being female or a mem-
ber of an ethnic minority, living in poverty, regular use of drugs (including tobacco
and alcohol), and engaging in delinquent behavior (Costello et al., 2008). In con-
trast, those in the nondepressed group of adolescents were more likely to come from
two-parent households; had higher self-esteem; and felt connected to parents, peers,
and school. Clearly, learned helplessness in the face of discrimination, prejudice, and
poverty may be associated with depression in these adolescents. Research has also
found that when therapists focus on helping clients change their way of thinking,
depression improves significantly when compared to therapy that focuses only on
changing behavior; these results lend support to the cognitive explanation of dis-
torted thinking as the source of depression (Strunk et al., 2010).
Biological explanations of disordered mood focus on the effects of brain chemi-
cals such as serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine; drugs used to treat depression
and mania typically affect the levels of these three neurotransmitters, either alone
or in combination (Cohen, 1997; Cummings & Coffey, 1994; Ruhe et al., 2007). And
as with other psychological disorders, neuroimaging continues to provide informa-
tion regarding possible brain areas associated with mood. Gray matter loss has been