Rhythm and Tempo in Mania demonstrate overlays of sociopathy. Mania may appear normal in inter

The rhythmicity and subjective tempos of psychotic inmates diag nosed as manic were investigated and compared with those of other psychotic and non-psychotic adult male prisoners. Rhythmicity and tempo performance were determined by three musical-rhythmic tasks that involved maintaining steady heats, reproducing rhythm patterns, and creating rhythm patterns. Analyses of variance re vealed that manic inmates were superior to the non-manic psychotic inmates and no different from the control inmates in rhythmicity and tempo reproduction; they were not different from the other groups in tempo synchrony. Manic inmates scored higher (p<.0l) on rhyth micity than on tempo, and their performance did not vary with the speed of item presentation. The rhythmicity findings suggest that the musical-rhythmic tasks could assist in verifying diagnostic distinc tions between manic and other psychotic patients. The tempo find ings suggest further inquiry into tempo as a multi-dimensional construct. The problem of distinguishing the manic patient from the schizophrenic patient during the psychotic phasesof disorder has long plagued clinicians and researchers. Bond (1980, p. 553) found that “lack of recognition of delirious mania can lead to mismanagement of the short-and long-term courses of the illness. ” Pope and Lipinski (1978) specified some potential risks attendant o misdiagnosis including poor prognosis, stigmatization, being kept from treatment of choice, and contamination of researchstatis tics. Many researchers have found that the problem of misdiagnosis is exacerbated by the prevalence of a dysphoric mood and schizophreniform symptomotology in many manic patients (Garvey & Tuason, 1980;Guze, Woodruff, & Clayton, 1975; Ollerenshaw, 1973). Research is scarce regarding mania among prisoners. Two studies (Good, 1978; London & Taylor, 1982) found that bipolar affective dis orders are more prevalent among psychiatric patients in prisons than among those in the general population. Good also indicated that incarcer ation confounds accuracy in diagnosis becausemanic inmates are more likely to exhibit a dysphoric mood, to use drugs and alcohol, and t