Clinical features of mood disorders and mania

The clinical spectrum of the states of depression and mania has been described in Fig. 4.5.2.1 by the symptomatic dimensions of severity as validated by clinician-rated scales. Thus, symptom severity is a key issue of the spectrum of mood states. The spectrum of mood polarity disorders covering the longitudinal diagnosis of manic and depressive episodes is shown in Fig. 4.5.2.2. Recent research has demonstrated how important it is to recognize subthreshold states of mania and depression, as they can have a major impact on both social functioning and quality of life, since many patients with mood disorders spend much time in subthreshold disorders, i.e. cyclothymia, dysthymia, or neuroticism. While the severity spectrum of the states of mania and depression has been accepted as evidence-based, we still lack a validation of the mood polarity spectrum in long-term follow-up studies.