A comparison of unipolar and bipolar depressive illness

Abstract

In 40 consecutively hospitalized patients with research diagnoses of endogenous depression, no difference was found between unipolar and bipolar depressive patients in the risk for affective disorder in 1st-degree relatives, proportion of EEG or neuropsychological abnormalities, clinical evidence of the depressive syndrome or response to doctor''s choice of treatment. Bipolar patients had an earlier age of onset and displayed more manic symptoms than did unipolar patients. The 2 forms of depressive illness are clinically and genetically homogeneous, are without identifying EEG or cognitive differences and have an equally good response to somatic treatments.