King’s bipolar disorder link

King George III probably suffered from bouts of mania symptomatic of bipolar disorder, new research suggests.

A computer analysis of hundreds of the King’s letters challenges the theory that the monarch’s strange behaviour was due to an inherited blood condition, porphyria. Scientists found evidence of “acute mania”, a term used to describe the kind of excitable, hyperactive state associated with bipolar disorder.

Once described as manic depression, bipolar disorder is characterised by extreme mood swings, including periods of high excitement.

Lead researcher Peter Garrard, Professor of Neurology at St George’s, University of London, said: “King George wrote very differently when unwell, compared to when he was healthy.”