OBJECTIVE Some studies suggest that depressive subtypes, defined by groups of symptoms, have predictive or diagnostic utility. These studies make the implicit assumption of stability of symptoms across episodes in mood disorders, which has rarely been investigated. METHODS We examined prospective data from a cohort of 3,750 individuals with bipolar I or II disorder participating in the System...

Bipolar disorder (previously also labeled manic-depressive illness) is typically referred to as an episodic, yet lifelong and clinically severe affective (or mood) disorder, affecting approximately 3.5% of the population (Marmol, 2008; Simon, 2003; Wittchen et al., 2003; Woods, 2000). The term bipolar disorder, however, encompasses several phenotypes of mood disorders, i.e. mania, hypomania or ...

The lifetime prevalence rates of unipolar depression (UPD) in males and females of first-world countries are approximately 15 and 25 percent, respectively. The figures appear to be equally disheartening in developing countries: The 12-month prevalence of major depressive disorder in South Africa is roughly 5 percent. It is therefore not surprising that 25 percent of all visits to health care pr...

OBJECTIVE The purpose of this retrospective study was to investigate the prevalence of bipolar depression and differentiate the factors that could predict bipolar disorder among filicidal depressive mothers. METHOD Among the offenders who were sentenced to undergo treatment at the National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry, Gongju, Korea, for committing filicide or attempting filicide during 1...

Outcome in bipolar patients is affected by comorbidity. Comorbid personality disorders are frequent and may complicate the course of bipolar illness. This pilot study examined a series of 40 euthymic bipolar patients (DSM-IV criteria) (bipolar I disorder 31, bipolar II disorder 9) to assess the effect of clinical variables and the influence of comorbid personality on the clinical course of bipo...

BACKGROUND The aim was to investigate the personality profile of bipolar disorder I and II, and healthy controls, and to study whether personality influences the course of bipolar disorder. METHODS One hundred ten patients with bipolar disorder I, 85 patients with bipolar disorder II, and 86 healthy individuals had their personality profile assessed using the Swedish universities Scales of Pe...

CONTEXT Major depressive disorder, the most common psychiatric illness, is often chronic and a major cause of disability. Many patients with major depressive episodes who have an underlying but unrecognized bipolar disorder receive pharmacologic treatment with ineffective regimens that do not include mood stabilizers. OBJECTIVE To determine the frequency of bipolar disorder symptoms in patien...

unipolar disorder by including manic states. No matter how many times a patient is depressed; only one manic/hypomanic episode is required to diagnose bipolar rather than unipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is further characterized as type I or type II. Type I is diagnosed when at least one manic episode is identified. Usually recurrent depression also occurs, but in 5 to 10 percent of cases th...