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Bipolar Disorders in Mentally Retarded Persons With Pervasive Developmental Disorders

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Abstract

To examine clinical features of mentally retarded patients with pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) with a comorbid bipolar disorder, 23 PDD patients (mean age = 23.5 years, SD = 4.2) with an episode satisfying modified DSM-IV criteria for manic/hypomanic episode (PDD-B), and 23 age, sex, diagnosis, and retardation matched control PDD patients without a mood episode (PDD-C) were compared on 26 variables (e.g., family history, development, autistic symptoms, epilepsy). Although many of the variables did not show a significant difference, autistic symptoms tended to be more severe in the PDD-B than PDD-C patients, and epilepsy tended to occur earlier in 14 PDD-C than 13 PDD-B patients. Twenty two of the 23 PDD-B patients had taken mood stabilizers clinically judged effective. Bipolar disorders are not rare and are diagnosable in mentally retarded PDD patients with modified DSM-IV criteria consisting of items observable by others, and their treatment by mood stabilizers seems worthy for further research.

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Correspondence to Hiroshi Kurita.

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Kurita, H., Osada, H., Shimizu, K. et al. Bipolar Disorders in Mentally Retarded Persons With Pervasive Developmental Disorders. J Dev Phys Disabil 16, 377–389 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-004-0693-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-004-0693-8

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