Dr. Roy Perlis answers the question: 'What Is Cyclothymia?'
Question: What is cyclothymia?
Answer: Cyclothymia is a diagnosis that's given to people who have persistent periods of elevation or depression that never reach criteria for diagnosing a major depressive episode or a manic episode.
So these are people who, on most days, have highs or lows, and have these periods nearly all the time for at least two years. The symptoms interfere with their functioning but don't rise to the level where we would diagnose bipolar disorder.
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