Defining the clinical course of bipolar disorder: response, remission, relapse, recurrence, and roughening.

Objective: This manuscript presents working definitions for key clinical course indicators for bipolar disorder, including response, remission, relapse, recurrence, and roughening.

Method: A work group of experts in bipolar disorder reviewed prior efforts to define clinical course indicators for unipolar depression and for schizophrenia. Using these efforts as templates, the work group developed consensus operational definitions.

Healthcare resource utilization in bipolar depression compared with unipolar depression: results of a United States population-based study.

Introduction: This study examined healthcare utilization in the past year by subjects who screened positive for bipolar versus unipolar depression.

Method: A self-administered survey was completed in 2002 by a United States population-based sample. Respondents were categorized into one of three subgroups: bipolar depressed screen positive (BP DEP+, n=394); unipolar depressed screen positive (UP DEP+, n=794); and control subjects (n=1,612).