Am J Psychiatry 1989; 146:1149-1154
Copyright © 1989 by American Psychiatric Association
Cyclothymic mood swings in the course of affective disorders and schizophrenia
CG Fichtner, LS Grossman, M Harrow, JF Goldberg and DN Klein
Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois, Chicago.
The authors assessed cyclothymic mood swings and psychosocial adjustment in
38 unipolar depressed, 27 bipolar, 35 schizophrenic, and 27 other
psychiatric patients 4 years after hospital discharge and in 153 normal
control subjects. The patients were significantly more cyclothymic at
follow-up than the control subjects, but there were no differences in
cyclothymia between the diagnostic groups. Cyclothymic patients showed
significantly poorer posthospital functioning than noncyclothymic patients.
These findings raise questions concerning the scope of the hypothesized
cyclothymic-bipolar spectrum. Minor mood swings in a variety of patients
with poor posthospital adjustment may reflect persistent vulnerability to
psychopathology.
