[Clinical picture and diagnosis of bipolar disorder].

Since more than one century, the illness considerably evolved. Between the extremes of full-blown manic-depressive disorder and the strictly defined unipolar depression, patients exhibit particular affective conditions characterised by complex or soft symptoms. So the actual classification encompasses 6 clinical forms with sometimes, sub-forms.

The cyclothymic temperament in healthy controls and familially at risk individuals for mood disorder: endophenotype for genetic studies?

Background: The modern concept of affective disorders focuses increasingly on the study of subthreshold conditions on the border of manic or depressive episodes. Indeed, a spectrum of affective conditions spanning from temperament to clinical episodes has been proposed by the senior author. As bipolar disorder is a familial illness, an examination of cyclothymic temperament (CT) in controls and relatives of bipolar patients is of major relevance.