The concordance of operational criteria for mania and schizoaffective mania.

Indices of agreement of six definitions of mania and four definitions of schizoaffective mania were calculated in a series of 81 manically disturbed patients. In particular, the concordance of the manic triad definition of overactivity, pressure of speech, and manic mood with stricter definitions was measured. The agreement among criteria was generally low for mania and even lower for schizoaffective mania. Although the manic triad definition diagnoses a wider range of patients, its coverage is less than might be expected from the small number of symptoms included in the definition. Tighter constructs of mania generally do not seem much more valid.