Is the increase of hypomanic stages during adolescence related to gender and developmental tasks?

Abstract

Objectives. To detach themselves from their family of origin, adolescents need to develop proactive behaviour which includes increased risk-taking and novelty seeking. These behaviours may be attributable both to developmental issues and to hypomanic-like stages. Since there is a lack of research focusing on hypomania in adolescents the aim of the study was to compare hypomania scores of adolescents with those of adult outpatients suffering from bipolar II disorders, and to investigate possible gender-related differences. Methods. One hundred and seven adolescents (mean age: 18 years) took part in the study; 60 of them indicated that they experienced intense romantic love; 47 were controls. Participants completed the Hypomania Check List, and data were compared with those of adult outpatients suffering from bipolar II disorders. Results. Scores of adolescents in early-stage intense romantic love differed from those of adolescent controls, but not from those of outpatients suffering from a bipolar II disorder. Factor analyses revealed that both groups of adolescents displayed higher scores for the factor “irritable/risk-taking” hypomania. A gender-related pattern was found, with increased scores for female adolescents. Conclusion. Adolescents’ developmental tasks surrounding experiences in social, psychosexual and substance use-related engagement may lead to temporary and gender-related hypomanic-like stages.

Key words::

• Adolescents
• bipolar disorders
• developmental tasks
• gender differences
• HCL-32
• hypomania

Acknowledgments

We thank Alexandre Mueller for data entry. Moreover, we thank Alex Gamma (Zurich, Switzerland) for the data of the Italian sample of outpatients suffering from BP II.

Statement of Interest

The study was conducted without external funding, and all authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Notes

¹The cut-off point of 6 turned out to best discriminate between people highly in love and people just in love (cf. Marazziti and Canale 2004; Brand et al. 2007).

²The sample was already described in Angst et al. (2005); outpatients with diagnosed unipolar depressive or bipolar disorders were recruited in an outpatient clinic in Italy. Following the recommendations established by Brislin (1986), a German version of the HCL-32 was first translated into Italian by a professional translator, and then back-translated into German by another translator. Consensus was reached on a final version that was subjected to the translation–re-translation process.