title: Could hypomanic traits explain selective migration? Verifying the hypothesis by the surveys on sardinian migrants.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A recent survey put forward the hypothesis that the emigration that occurred from Sardinia from the 1960's to the 1980's, selected people with a hypomanic temperament. The paper aims to verify if the people who migrated from Sardinia in that period have shown a high risk of mood disorders in the surveys carried out in their host countries, and if the results are consistent with this hypothesis.
  
  
  METHODS
  This is systematic review.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the 1970's when examining the attitudes towards migration in Sardinian couples waiting to emigrate, Rudas found that the decision to emigrate was principally taken by males. Female showed lower self-esteem than male emigrants. A study on Sardinian immigrants in Argentina carried out in 2001-02, at the peak of the economic crisis, found a high risk of depressive disorders in women only. These results were opposite to the findings recorded ten years earlier in a survey on Sardinian immigrants in Paris, where the risk of Depressive Episode was higher in young men only.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Data point to a bipolar disorder risk for young (probably hypomanic) male migrants in competitive, challenging conditions; and a different kind of depressive episodes for women in trying economic conditions. The results of the survey on Sardinian migrants are partially in agreement with the hypothesis of a selective migration of people with a hypomanic temperament. Early motivations and self-esteem seem related to the ways mood disorders are expressed, and to the vulnerability to specific triggering situations in the host country.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Clinical and Molecular Medicine, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Carta Mauro
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Giovanni
authors.forename: Moro Maria
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Francesca
authors.forename: Kovess
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Viviane
authors.forename: Maria Veronica
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Brasesco
authors.forename: Krishna M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Bhat
authors.forename: Angermeyer C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Matthias
authors.forename: Hagop S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Akiskal