Prevalence and characteristics of mania in Chinese inpatients: a prospective study

Of 1,730 consecutive admissions to an acute inpatient psychiatric unit in China, 155 (8.9%) satisfied two sets of research diagnostic criteria for mania, a figure significantly greater than those previously reported in China. The authors studied 108 of these patients and found that their clinical characteristics were similar to those of Western patients; their response to treatment was excellent and their course benign. Their first-degree relatives had a high morbidity risk for affective disorder and a low morbidity risk for schizophrenia. The authors discuss the implications of their findings in China, where the use of lithium is uncommon because of the impression that mania is rare in China.