[Hypomania. Apropos of a cohort of young patients]

Abstract

The Zurich prospective epidemiological study included 591 twenty-year old subjects. At age twenty-eight, 457 of these people (228 males, 234 females) were re-examined and 415 of them at age thirty (197 males, 218 females). The DSM III-R definition of hypomania was modified. We found the following prevalences: 1.7% with hypomania, 3% with bipolar syndromes, 18.6% with major depression (including mood disorders) and 12.3% with short recurrent depression. Compared to male subjects, the risk of major depression was twice as high in female subjects but was roughly the same for the other groups. The study compares three groups of subjects: subjects with hypomania (UM), bipolar subjects (BP) and unipolar depression. Considerable differences were found depending on the levels of treatment, positive family histories for depression or hypomania and attempted suicides. The results show that the distinction between a subject with hypomania and a bipolar subjects is not clear. The ratings of the Hopkins Symptom Checklist scales (SCL 90-R), and of the FPI personality test (Fahrenberg et al., 1973) are presented and discussed. 12.7% of major depression cases were bipolar and 8.3% of short depressions were recurrent. In this sample of normal Swiss population, the ratio of bipolar to unipolar syndromes was approximately 1:5.