title: An evolutionary approach to mania studying Sardinian immigrants to Argentina.
abstract: To ascertain lifetime prevalence of positivity to a screening questionnaire for bipolar disorders (BD) in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina and residents of Sardinia and assess whether such positivity affects quality of life (QoL) in either group. Our hypothesis is that screen positivity for BD may be more frequent in immigrants.
  Observational study. Subjects were randomly selected from the membership lists of associations of Sardinian immigrants in Argentina. A study carried out in Sardinia using the same methodology was used for comparison. The Mood Disorder Questionnaire was used to screen for mania/hypomania and the Short-Form Health Survey-12 to measure QoL.
  A higher prevalence of manic/hypomanic episodes was found in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina (p < 0.0001; odds ratio = 3.0, 95% confidence interval 1.87-4.77). Positivity at screening was associated with a lower QoL both in Sardinian immigrants to Argentina and in residents of Sardinia.
  To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to show a higher lifetime prevalence of manic/hypomanic episodes in a general-population sample of individuals who migrated to a foreign country. Our results are in agreement with the hypothesis that hyperactive/novelty-seeking features may represent an adaptive substrate in certain conditions of social change.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Mauro G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Carta
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Perra
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Michela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Atzeni
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: D'Oca
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.|Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Maria F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Moro
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Peter K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Kurotschka
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Moro
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Sancassiani
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Sanitè Pubblica, Universitè degli studi di Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Minerba
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad del Museo Social Argentino, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Maria V
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Brasesco
authors.affiliation: Facultad de Humanidades, Universidad del Museo Social Argentino, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mausel
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Psiquiatria (IPUB), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Antonio E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Nardi
authors.affiliation: Centro Lucio Bini Cagliari and Centro Lucio Bini Roma, Italy.|Harvard Medical School, McLean Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tondo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000367:Age Factors; D001118:Argentina / Q000453:epidemiology; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D054242:Emigrants and Immigrants / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000208:ethnology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000592:standards; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards