title: The course of bipolar disorder in rural India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the naturalistic course of bipolar disorder in a rural, community-based, partially treated cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  All patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder during an epidemiological survey (n=34) in a rural area in India were followed longitudinally using standardized instruments, and the life-chart method used to examine their course.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Seven (26%) of the 27 patients evaluated directly had not received any treatment whatsoever. Four patients (15%) had experienced rapid-cycling at some time; patients without rapid-cycling had experienced a mean 0.22 episodes/year. Episodes of mania accounted for 72% of all episodes. None of the variables examined appeared to predict the total number of episodes experienced by individual patients, although rapid-cycling occurred significantly more often if the patients had not received any psychopharmacological treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A mania-predominant course was observed in this small cohort, similar to reports from other developing countries.
authors: Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Hosur Road, Bangalore 560029, Karnataka.
authors: Mohit P
authors: MP
authors: Chopra
authors: K V
authors: KV
authors: Kishore Kumar
authors: D K
authors: DK
authors: Subbakrishna
authors: Sanjeev
authors: S
authors: Jain
authors: R Srinivasa
authors: RS
authors: Murthy