Quality of life in patients with bipolar I depression: data from 920 patients.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the impact of acute depression on quality of life (QOL) in patients with bipolar I disorder and to compare these results with published data on QOL in patients with unipolar depression.


METHODS
Quality of life was assessed using the SF-36 in bipolar patients (n = 958) who had recently experienced an episode of acute bipolar depression and participated in a large randomized, double-blind, safety and efficacy trial. Seven studies that included SF-36 data from patients with unipolar depression were identified in the published literature and descriptive comparisons of SF-36 scores were made between the unipolar depression trials and this bipolar depression trial.


RESULTS
There were 920 patients who completed the SF-36. Mean transformed scores, which could range from 0 to 100, were very low in bipolar depressed patients for the role-physical (36.7), vitality (22.4), social functioning (29.9), role-emotion (11.4), and mental health (31.0) subscales. Mean SF-36 scores for all subscales were significantly and inversely correlated (p < 0.0001) with the HAM-D indicating that patients with milder depressive symptoms had better QOL. Further, the mean SF-36 scores for the bipolar sample were consistently lower compared with published data on QOL in unipolar depression on four of the eight subscales: general health; social functioning; role-physical, and role-emotional.


CONCLUSIONS
While both unipolar and bipolar depression have serious detrimental effects on patient QOL, our results suggest that some aspects of QOL may be worse in bipolar depression.
Yatham
Lakshmi N
LN
The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada. yatham@interchange.ubc.ca
Lecrubier
Yves
Y
Fieve
Ronald R
RR
Davis
Kimberly H
KH
Harris
Soyna D
SD
Krishnan
Anupama A
AA
D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D004359:Drug Therapy, Combination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D000077213:Lamotrigine; D016651:Lithium Carbonate / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D008297:Male; D011584:Psychology; D011788:Quality of Life; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014227:Triazines / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000627:therapeutic use*
D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D014227:Triazines; D016651:Lithium Carbonate; D000077213:Lamotrigine