Whats the scale of manic depressive illness?
A. In Australia, a survey has recently been undertaken, but is yet to be analysed. We know that between one and two percent of the population, at some stage of their life, will have manic depressive illness. About half of that is the severe form, what we call Bipolar I. The other half are Bipolar II. For a medical condition, that’s quite common. Some conditions, like diabetes, are around that same rate. I like to think of it in concrete terms. If you think of the population of Sydney, around four million, that means at least the number of people at the rugby league grand final in the Sydney Football Stadium –40,000 odd people — that number of people in Sydney, minimum, are likely at some stage of their life, to have manic depressive illness. So, when you think about it in those terms, it’s a lot of people. Q. What makes you think that manic depressive illness is something that might be genetically based? A. The evidence for the heritability of manic depressive illness comes from seve
