The effect of somatic treatment and comorbidity on immediate outcome in manic patients

Logistic regression was used to determine the association between clinical variables and outcome at discharge in a sample of 438 manics hospitalized at a tertiary care facility. In the total sample, and for males, treatment with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and lithium carbonate were positively associated with good outcome. Among females, ECT was positively associated and comorbidity negatively associated with good outcome. Comorbidity appears to be a potentially useful variable in predicting immediate response to treatment.