Manic-depressive illness among poor urban Hispanics

Manic-depressive illness is reported to occur infrequently among some racial or ethnic groups and among lower socioeconomic groups. The authors investigated the incidence of manic-depressive illness among a random sample of 90 lower socioeconomic Hispanic patients admitted to the psychiatric inpatient unit of an urban hospital. They made a retrospective diagnosis based on DSM-III criteria and independent of the hospital diagnosis. Ten patients (11%) were diagnosed as manic- depressive--a rate three times the national admission rate. The authors discuss the significance of this finding and its relationship to sociocultural aspects of the Hispanic patient.