High Rates of Comorbidities in Bipolar Disorder

the Psychiatry Advisor take:

Patients who suffer from bipolar disorder have rates of medical comorbidities that are higher than those who have depression alone.

Nick Craddock, PhD, of Cardiff University, United Kingdom, and colleagues examined the rates of medical illnesses in more than 1700 patients with bipolar disorder and more than 1700 patients with unipolar depression.

Elevated rates of medical illnesses was linked to a history of anxiety disorder, rapid cycling mood episodes and suicide attempts, the researchers reported in The British Journal of Psychiatry.

The most common medical conditions in both the bipolar and unipolar groups were migraine headache (23.7 and 21.9%, respectively), asthma (19.2 and 13.1%), elevated cholesterol (19.2 and 9.7%), hypertension (15.0 and 16.8%), thyroid disease (12.9 and 8.2%) and osteoarthritis (10.8 and 10.9%).

Researchers also found in the bipolar group no meaningful difference between those with and without a history of medical illnesses when it came to alcohol abuse or smoking rates.

“This comorbidity needs to be taken into account by services in order to improve outcomes for patients with bipolar disorder and also in research investigating the aetiology of affective disorder where shared biological pathways may play a role,” the researchers concluded.