Bipolar disorder: A cross-sectional study

SUMMARYBipolar Disorder: A Cross-Sectional StudyThe aim of this study was to determine the sociodemographic characteristics, age atonset, clinical features, treatment methods of the follow-up patient group in BipolarDisorder Unit of the Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Çukurova University.Fifty consecutive patients, from the 2006 Bipolar Disorder Mood Unit, areincluded in this study. ?Affective Disorders Patient Registry Form? developed byPsychiatry Association of Turkey Mood Disorders Study Section was used in this study tocollect the data. These forms are completed through interviews with patients and theirrelatives, and evaluation of inpatient files.In this study, 46 % of subjects were female, 54 % were male. The mean age at theonset of the illness was 23,9± 7,3 years, mean duration of illness was 8,4± 7,9. In themajority of the patients (68 %) the type of first affective episode was mania. 84 % hadmild to severe episodes; 41 % had at least one psychiatric axis I comorbidty 68 % had afamily history of psychiatric illness. Age of onset of the Illness was lower than 18 years in%22 of patients, whereas 16% of patients had an onset of first episode after the age of 30years. Rapid cycling feature was present in 10%, seasonality in 42%, psychotic features in80%. Of all patients, 22% of the patients had a history of at least one suicide attempt intheir lifetime. Bipolar patients with an early onset of disease experienced more psychoticepisodes compared to late onset group. Besides, being single (including divorced,separated spouses) was significantly higher in early onset group. 45,5% of cases with anearly age of onset, and 17,9% of late onset cases had attempted suicide in their lifetime.Nevertheless, this difference did not reach statistical significance. Patients with late onsetof bipolar disorder had significantly more mixed periods, higher rate of rapid cycling, andcomorbidity with axis I disorder. 38 of the cases (76%) included in this study wereeuthymic. 60.6% of euthymic patients were receiving combined therapy at the time ofstudy.As a conclusion, the characteristics of bipolar disorder as a chronic disorder with ahigher rate of lifetime psychological and social consequences should be determined indetail which might lead us to gain important insight to cope with this illness.KEYWORDS: Bipolar Disorder, Early Onset, Late Onset, Course of the Illness,TreatmentIX