Are Men Or Women More Likely To Develop Bipolar Disorder?

— -- Question: Are men or women more likely to develop bipolar disorder?

Answer: Bipolar disorder is truly an equal opportunity condition. It strikes men and women equally, and if we went through any given census track in the United States -- or any other country, in fact -- we would find pretty much equal proportion of men and women.

On the other hand, women are actually much more likely to come to treatment and therefore if you would look in the clinic population, you would see an overrepresentation of women. Possibly, that is why the outcome for women across many medical conditions is better. They are just more likely to come to treatment.

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