Hostname: page-component-599cfd5f84-cdgjw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-07T07:27:35.130Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Unipolar Mania Reconsidered: Evidence from an Elderly Cohort

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Kenneth I. Shulman  and
Mauricio Tohen
Kenneth I. Shulman
Affiliation:
Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, University of Toronto, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M4N 3M5, Canada
Mauricio Tohen
Affiliation:
Psychotic Disorders Program, McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 115 Mill Street, Belmont, MA 02178-9106, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Earlier studies have failed to differentiate the unipolar manic subtype from bipolar patients with both manic and depressive episodes. This retrospective cohort study of 50 elderly manic in-patients identified six patients (12%) who met strict criteria for a course of unipolar mania. Significant differences emerged in age at onset, with a mean of 41.2 years for unipolar mania compared with 64.7 years for the others. Consequently, clinical course was significantly longer, 27.7 v. 7.4 years. Elderly patients pursuing a unipolar manic course are among the very few elderly ‘bipolars’ whose illness begins early in life. Recent neuroradiological investigations and data from geriatric studies suggest that the concept of unipolar mania is worthy of further investigation.

Type
Short Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 164 , Issue 4 , April 1994 , pp. 547 - 549
Copyright
Copyright © 1994 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrams, R. & Taylor, M. A. (1974) Unipolar mania - a preliminary report. Archives of General Psychiatry, 30, 441–443.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Abrams, R. & Taylor, M. A. Hayman, M. A., et al (1979) Unipolar mania revisited. Journal of Affective Disorders, 1, 59–68.Google Scholar
Akiskal, H., Walker, P., Puzantian, V. R., et al (1983) Bipolar outcome in the course of depressive illness. Journal of Affective Disorders, 5, 115–128.Google Scholar
Broadhead, J. & Jacoby, R. (1990) Mania in old age: a first prospective study. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 5, 215–222.Google Scholar
Goodwin, F. K. & Jamison, K. R. (1990) Manic-Depressive Illness. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Nurnberger, J. Jr, Roose, S. P., Dunner, D. L., et al (1979) Unipolar mania: a distinct clinical entity? American Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 1420–1423.Google Scholar
Pfohl, B., Vasquez, N. & Nasrallah, H. (1982) Unipolar vs. bipolar mania: a review of 247 patients. British Journal of Psychiatry, 141, 453–458.Google Scholar
Shulman, K. & Post, F. (1980) Bipolar disorder in old age. British Journal of Psychiatry, 136, 26–32.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shulman, K. I., Tohen, M., Satlin, A., et al (1992) Mania compared with unipolar depression in old age. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 341–345.Google Scholar
Starkstein, S. E., Fedoroff, P., Berthier, M. L., et al (1991) Manic-depressive and pure manic states after brain lesions. Biological Psychiatry, 29, 149–158.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.