Further Evidence for age of Onset Being an Indicator for Severity in Bipolar Disorder

In this letter to the editor, the authors describe their study in which they tried to replicate the results of Schurhoff et al’s (2000) research that found an early age of onset in manic-depressive illness to be an indicator of a more severe phenotype that went along with a higher familial loading. Schulze et al found no significant differences in their sample of 52 patients with bipolar disorder & early onset & the sample of 38 patients with late onset in gender ratio, suicidal behaviours, or comorbid alcohol abuse. (16 refs.)