Am J Psychiatry 1981; 138:654-657
Copyright © 1981 by American Psychiatric Association
Manic-depressive illness among poor urban blacks
BE Jones, BA Gray and EB Parson
In psychiatric epidemiology it has generally been accepted that manic-
depressive illness rarely occurs among blacks and lower socioeconomic
groups. The authors conducted a retrospective study to examine the
frequency of manic-depressive illness among lower income urban blacks
admitted to an acute psychiatric inpatient unit of an urban hospital. The
medical records of a random sample of 117 black psychiatric patients were
reviewed for determination of manic-depressive illness as well as
socioeconomic characteristics. Eighteen subjects (15%) were diagnosed as
manic-depressive. The authors present possible explanations for this
finding and the ramifications for future investigations.
