BACKGROUND The prevalence of bipolar II disorder in depressed outpatients is much higher than previously reported, a finding probably related to systematic probing for past hypomania by trained clinicians. Our objective was to further refine the strict SCID-CV guidelines for hypomania in depressed outpatients. METHODS 168 consecutive outpatients presenting with major depression were systemati...

OBJECTIVE To review new perspectives on diagnosis, clinical features, epidemiology, and treatment of bipolar II and related disorders. QUALITY OF EVIDENCE Articles were identified by searching MEDLINE and ClinPSYCH from January 1994 to August 2001 using the key words bipolar disorder, type II or 2; hypomania; spectrum; or variants. Reference lists from articles were reviewed. Overall, the qua...

This paper describes a model for integrating two psychological constructs—bipolar disorder and the Type A behavior pattern—each of which has been associated with enhanced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). It highlights similarities between manic/hypomanic behaviors associated with bipolarity and the behaviors observed in Type A individuals. The proposed model conceptualizes Type A behavior ...

Sir: Bipolar II disorder is a valid and reliable diagnosis and its prevalence in society is higher than was once assumed. Considering the fact that the main clinical presentation of bipolar II disorder is composed of depressive symptoms and the fact that the retrospective diagnosis of episodes of hypomania is often difficult, there has been an increased concern about the underdiagnosis of bipol...

Antidepressants are widely used in the treatment of bipolar depression despite relatively meagre evidence for their efficacy and significant concerns that their prescription can precipitate an acute affective switch into mania/hypomania and that long-term administration can lead to mood instability. Therefore, the use of antidepressants to treat bipolar depression is an important but contentiou...

AIM To assess the level of caregiving burden and psychological distress among spouses of bipolar disorder - BD (type I and II) patients. METHODS 77 subjects (41 women and 36 men) were enrolled in the study - 44 spouses of bipolar I (BD I) patients and 33 spouses of bipolar II (BD II). The whole group was divided into 4 subgroups: (I) the wives of BD I patients: n=27, (II) the husbands of BD I...