ABSTRACT
Community studies suggest a very low prevalence of mania in old age
(< 1/1000) reflecting the high mortality of younger patients with bipolar
illness, effective treatment with mood stabilizers (see below) and the
tendency for mania to ‘burn out’ in long-term survivors of early onset
mania. Mania is, however, relatively common in older hospital cohorts,
representing 4-8% of psychiatric in-patient samples and as many as 12%
of psychiatric admissions for mood disorders.
