The prevalence of bipolar disorder (BD) is continuously increasing worldwide. Based on pathophysiological prospective, BD is related to the change in neural circuitry involved in the regulation of emotion. Since there is a cultural variation in emotion expression, it is expected that BD is subject to cultural differences. The literature suggests that the prevalence of BD is influenced by gender, region and ethnicity.

Exploring the pervasiveness of BD in the Arab cultures.

Aims – exploring the pervasiveness of BD in six different but related Arab cultures;

– examining the gender differences in BD in the Arab cultural context.

This study used 327 freshmen university students (42% males and 58% females) from six different Arab universities and administered the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). The validity and reliability of the MDQ was measured on 220 Qatari university students.

The results showed that BD was positively related to age and that males exhibited greater BD symptoms than females. The MDQ scores varied between the Arab subcultures. Sudanese subjects scored the highest on the MDQ, and therefore showed the highest numbers of BD characteristics, followed by Palestinians, Egyptians, Yemenis, Qataris, Jordanians and Tunisians. The Tunisians exhibited the lowest BD symptoms among six Arab cultures.

The findings suggested that it is arguable that BD is sensitive to cultural variations in the Arab world, with males showing a higher number of bipolar symptoms. It is arguable that BD is influenced by cultural openness and socioeconomic status.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.