The longitudinal course of recurrent affective illness: life chart data from research patients at the NIMH.

Using data gathered in a naturalistic study of 95 research patients at the NIMH, a retrospective method of documenting the life course of recurrent affective illness is presented, along with a partial prospective validation of this method. In these patients, the severity, frequency, and duration of manic and depressive episodes, as well as their pattern and distribution, are characterized. These variables are examined in different patients subgrouped according to gender and age of onset, polarity, and rapidity of cycling of illness. The findings are compared with data on the life course of affective illness found in studies from the pre-pharmacologic era.