Subtyping Micromanic Episodes

Letter to the Editor

Sir: I read with great interest Dr. McElroy’s conceptualizationof the explosivity component in intermittent explosivedisorder as containing the features of what she terms a "microdysphoricmanic episode." While the idea of re-visioningexplosivity as a brief manic episode is, to me, a diagnosticbreakthrough with important treatment implications, her categorizationof these episodes as "dysphoric" seems imprecise.

The DSM-IV (1994) lists 3 synonyms to exemplify a dysphoricmood: sadness, anxiety, or irritability.