The investigators defined subthreshold bipolardisorder as recurrent hypomania (mild hypomania) without a major depressive episode or with fewer symptoms than required for threshold hypomania.
About a quarter of those suffer from severe illnesses, such as schizophrenia or bipolardisorder, and the rest from less debilitating ones, such as mild depression or anxiety.
One of the patients was a woman in her 20s who showed mild symptoms of schizophrenia, while another was a man in his 40s who appeared to hae bipolardisorder.