Follow-up of 53 Bipolar Manic-Depressive Patients

Despite the monumental follow-up studies of patients with manic-depressive illness by Lundquist (1945), Rennie (1942), Hastings (1958), and more recently, Shobe (1971), the development of the concept of unipolar and bipolar forms of affective disorders with clinical (Brodie and Leff, 1971), genetic (Dunner et al., 1970; Winokur et al., 1969), and biologic differences (Buchsbaum et al., 1971; Cohn et al., 1970), has necessitated a revaluation of the question of outcome in this psychiatric illness. The availability of lithium carbonate for both acute and prophylactic treatment of mania (Schou, 1968; Coppen et al., 1971), and possibly depression (Goodwin et al., 1972), has also increased the clinical importance of the unipolar-bipolar distinction. The purpose of this study is to provide further information regarding the course of bipolar manic-depressive illness by reporting the level of functioning, recurrence of episodes, and quality of life at follow-up assessed in a group of patients formerly hospitalized for mania at the National Institutes of Health.