Fourteen of 134 consecutively admitted manic patients exhibited
emotional blunting in addition to the full manic syndrome. The authors
compared these 14 blunted manic patients with the remaining 120 nonblunted
manic patients and with 31 schizophrenic patients admitted during the same
period. They found that the blunted manic patients more closely resembled
schizophrenic than nonblunted manic patients on most of the demographic,
clinical, and familial variables studied. Although mania with blunting may
represent a variant of schizophrenia, the etiologic association between
long-term neuroleptic administration and emotional blunting requires
further study.Abstract Teaser