222 CHAPTER 6
Table 6.9 • Bipolar Disorders Facts at a Glance
Prevalence- Between 0.4% and 1.6% of American suffer from bipolar I disorder.
- Approximately 0.5–1% of Americans will develop bipolar II disorder in their lifetimes (Merikangas
et al., 2007). - Approximately 10–15% of adolescents who are diagnosed as having recurrent MDEs will go on
to develop bipolar I disorder.
Onset- Both men and women begin to have symptoms of bipolar I disorder by the age of 20, on aver-
age, although the symptoms do not necessarily include full-blown manic attacks.
Comorbidity- Up to 65% of those with any bipolar disorder are also diagnosed with another Axis I disorder
(McElroy et al., 2001), such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, attention defi cit hyper-
activity disorder, panic disorder, or social phobia (American Psychiatric Association, 2000;
Merikangas et al., 2007). - Around 60% of people with a bipolar disorder also have substance-related problems (Regier
et al., 1990).
Course- Individuals who have had one manic episode have a 90% chance of having at least one further
manic episode. - People who have bipolar II disorder are less likely to develop psychotic symptoms during an
MDE than are people with bipolar I disorder. - Bipolar II disorder typically has a more chronic, though less severe, course than bipolar I
disorder ( Judd et al., 2003). - Approximately 60–70% of those with either type of bipolar disorder will have an MDE after a
manic or hypomanic episode. - People with either type of bipolar disorder have MDEs that are more severe and lead to more
lost work days than do people with depressive disorders (Kessler et al., 2006).
Gender Differences- Almost half of men with bipolar I disorder have their fi rst full-blown manic episode by age 25;
in contrast, only one third of women have their fi rst manic episode by that age (Kennedy
et al., 2005). - Bipolar I disorder is equally common among males and females, but bipolar II disorder is
more common among females than among males. - In males, the number of manic episodes (or hypomanic in the case of bipolar II disorder) often
equals or exceeds the number of MDEs, whereas in women, MDEs predominate. - For women, having a bipolar disorder boosts the risk of developing mood episodes (of any
kind) immediately after giving birth. - As with depressive episodes, symptoms of any other type of mood episode (manic,
hypomanic, or mixed) may get worse premenstrually.
Source: Unless otherwise noted, the source for information is American Psychiatric Association, 2000.
they had obvious creative genius; they were not randomly selected from a gen-
eral population of people with bipolar disorder. Also, some of the studies have
relied on biographical accounts of the family and friends of such creative people;
such sources and the biographers typically are not mental health clinicians and
so they may be less able to judge whether the creative person’s behavior meets
the criteria for a disorder. In an effort to circumvent such problems, some studies