I never saw these bipolar stats before...

"To help identify the various forms of the illness, 4 subtypes of bipolar disorder have been defined based on patients’ clinical characteristics: bipolar I disorder, bipolar II disorder, cyclothymia, and bipolar disorder not otherwise specified (APA 2000). Past estimates of the prevalence of the full spectrum of bipolar disorders have ranged from 3% to 6.5%, with about 1% considered to be the bipolar I subtype (Angst 1998; Stimmel 2004)."

Quote from Carbamazepine extended-release capsules in bipolar disorder but this thread is not about the medication, it's just an interesting discovery about a stat on the % of total people on the bipolar spectrum who likely have bipolar type 1, as opposed to other types.

wow ... I'm a 1 persenter ...

I think on here the numbers are different. I think we are lot more BPI than 1%. I think I'll try to figure out a poll because now I'm curious.

In the past, I had discovered an "Ask Dr. Phelps" site where people with bipolar disorder could ask a psychiatrist various questions about the disorder. In his retirement, Dr. Phelps closed down that Q&A, but he still maintains an interesting website with helpful info. When I first discovered it, it was geared to all people on the bipolar spectrum, but now (and to a large part in his published books) he focuses primarily on bipolar type 2 and other bipolar spectrum disorders, but not bipolar 1. For anyone who doesn't have bipolar type 1, it may be of interest. On his website, he wrote the following that supports the quote above that bipolar type 1 is not the most common type. He wrote:

"Bipolar 2 and its close relatives are far more common than the full manic-depressive Bipolar I. But it is often mistaken for plain depression because “hypomania” — a little manic — can be subtle. In some forms of bipolarity it can be absent. Diagnostically this really complicates things!"

Dr. Phelps' website is called PsychEducation. It's a bit more scientific oriented. It's not a website of the type as PC. One need not agree with everything he writes, but what he writes is mainstream.

I'm not bringing up these stats to imply anything special about any bp type. I'm only doing so because too often in the past only bipolar 1 was focused on. I have bipolar type 1 and the course of my illness has been horrible, but many people with bipolar 2 suffer greatly. Sometimes even more than some people with bipolar 1.

That's interesting, I like reading about statistics.

Apparently schizoaffecitve is seen in about 0.3% of the population according to NAMI.

Schizoaffective Disorder | NAMI: National Alliance on Mental Illness

Thanks for sharing that stat, Blue_Bird! I'm glad it's now included in this post.

Thank you BirdDancer. I think you have contributed more than anyone else by researching and consulting the science on various bipolar issues. I would urge everyone to take any statistics with a grain of salt, since we dont know how reputable a study was., etc etc. I think its always better to have some kind of figures than having nothing to go on. However, I just met another bipolar person at my gym and according to these figures, the odds of that happening make it almost impossible. Bipolar 2 can look so much like unipolar depression, and so many more people are diagnosed today due to better awareness in the public and in the medical profession that an old study could be a bit off. Let’s hope for more research on these disorders. There are studies underway trying to isolate the bipolar gene/s, but these things take time. They are making headway using CRISPR for gene editing so there is great hope for the future, especially for future generations.
New treatments are becoming more well known. Unfor tunately,after 40 yrs w this disorder, I am becoming more and more wary of some of the existing practices. Thank you, PsychCentral, BirdDancer, Skeezyks, and Sarah Sweets in particular for looking at the research for us.