Abstract

Objective: Although hypomania/mania during antidepressant treatment is not rare, it is often neglected by clinicians. As a result of the recent developments in this topic, bipolarity is now accepted as a wide spectrum. Forty percent of the patients with bipolar disorder have been misdiagnosed or diagnosed in later stages of illness. There are no specific diagnostic criteria for antidepressant-induced hypomania/mania. These patients have not been included in bipolar spectrum. In this study, we aimed to compare clinical features of BP I and antidepressant-induced hypomania/mania, and discussed bipolar spectrum disorders. Method: In this study, 84 consecutive patients who referred to outpatient unit were selected. Forty of the patients were diagnosed as antidepressant-induced mania or hypomania, and 44 of them as BP I disorder according to DSM-IV criteria. All patients were given SCID-I and a data form which included sociodemographic characteristics and clinical features. Results: The majority of the patients in both groups were female. The rate of major depression among the relatives of BP I group was significantly lower than antidepressant induced manic or hypomanic group. Antidepressant-associated mania or hypomania has been observed as a milder disorder compared to BP I. Conclusions: Our results suggest that antidepressant-associated mania or hypomania should be categorized as a different subgroup in bipolar disorders.

Key words: Antidepressant, bipolar disorder, hypomania, mania