Actuarial studies of the course of manic-depressive illness

The existence of two large-scale comparative longitudinal studies of lithium prophylaxis1,2 provides a rare opportunity for comparing and combining information on the course of manic-depressive illness and how the course is modified when patients are maintained on lithium carbonate. This report describes our success in constructing relatively simple mathematic models for the rates of relapse in manic-depressive illness under both lithium...