Importance of schizophrenic symptoms in the diagnosis of mania

The authors examined a sample of 111 consecutively admitted patients who satisfied inclusion criteria for mania and further characterized them as exhibiting none, one, or two or more of five clinical features often believed to be associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia: formal thought disorder, first-rank symptoms, auditory hallucinations, persecutory delusions, and catatonia. The presence and number of such symptoms were unrelated to any of the major demographic, clinical, historical, laboratory, or familial variables studied. The authors conclude that schizophrenic symptoms do not play an important role in patients who satisfy modern criteria for the diagnosis of mania.