Medical Comorbidity in the Course of Bipolar Disorder Page: I
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Smith, Patrick. Medical Comorbidity in the Course of Bipolar Disorder. Master of
Science (Psychology), May 2016, 78 pp., 17 tables, 84 references, 52 titles.
Bipolar disorder is a serious illness affecting approximately 2-4% of the population and is
one of the world's leading causes of disability. In individuals with bipolar disorder, medical
comorbidity associated with cardiovascular, respiratory and endocrine disorders is related to
increased rates of mortality. Recent updates to multi-system inflammatory related
conceptualizations of bipolar disorder focus on the unique power that medical illness and
biological processes may play as factors associated with course and outcome in bipolar disorder.
The current study examined medical comorbidity and its associations with various demographic
and psychological variables in individuals with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and major
depressive disorder with psychotic features followed for 10 years from their first hospital
admission. When compared to an age, gender and race-matched control sample from the
population, those with bipolar disorder had significantly higher medical comorbidity across a
range of medical diagnoses both at 6 months and 10 years after first hospital admission. Ten
years following initial hospitalization, individuals in all three diagnostic groups reported
increased rates of diabetes (OR: 2.0 - 3.7), stroke (OR: 4.6 - 7.0) and asthma (OR: 1.9 - 3.1),
and individuals with bipolar disorder reported increased rates of cancer (OR = 2.1). A number of
psychological and demographic symptoms were examined for their ability to predict the
development of medical illness across the assessment interval. Overall rates of medical illness
were elevated both early in illness course and 10 years after diagnosis, suggesting that broad
sequelae of multi-system inflammation are present early and progress over time.
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Smith, Patrick M. Medical Comorbidity in the Course of Bipolar Disorder, thesis, May 2016; Denton, Texas. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc849606/m1/2/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .