Socio Demographic Variables in Unipolar and Bipolar Illness

T h e proposal to divide manic depressive illness into separate bipolar (alternating mania and depression) and unipolar (recurrent depression or recurrent mania) psychoses was first brought-forward by Leonhard (1959), but it was Angst (1966) who first produced convincing evidence in support of the divison. Perris (1968) was able to show that bipolar illness started on average of fifteen years earlier than depression and recurred more frequently. Individual episodes of illness were shorter. Leonhard 's distinction has had to be amended in one respect. Patients with unipolar mania are rare , and their first degree relatives suffer not from mania alone but from bipolar illness, and there is general agreement that recurrent mania is best regarded as bipolar illness which has not yet manifested its first episode of depression. Remi et al (1970) analysed data from five published series of affective disorders for morbid risk of affective illness in parents, siblings and children of the probands, who were separated by age, sex and whether this is bipolar (demonstrating mania in their history or occuring in a first degree relatives) or unipolar (demonstrating one or more depression and without a history of mania in first degree relatives). Significant differences in parental morbid risk were found between younger and older onset probands. Significant sex differences in morbid risk were found in both unipolar and bipolar groups. Venkoba Rao (1974) in a study of 101 endogenous depressions could not find statistically significant differences in unipolar and bipolar illness but Singh and Agarwal (1980) and Agarwal (1977) reported significant differences in the two groups.