Letter to the Editor August 15, 2005

Reply to "Possible Bipolar Nature of Irritability in Major Depressive Disorder."

Roy H. Perlis, MD; Maurizio Fava, MD; A. John Rush, MD

J Clin Psychiatry 2005;66(8):1073-1073

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Sir: In his letter, Dr. Benazzi provides an important additionto his previous work,1-3 as well as our own,4,5 suggesting thatmany bipolar subjects experience substantial irritability duringdepressive episodes. We would, however, emphasize 2 additionalaspects of these studies.First, to refer to the "bipolar nature of irritability" is to neglectthe observation, in his study cohort and our own, thatroughly 40% of major depressive disorder (MDD) subjects alsoexperienced irritability.’ ‹