Age at onset of bipolar disorder in a Norwegian catchment area sample.
BACKGROUND
Early onset of bipolar disorder (BD) is an important clinical predictor of a more severe course and poorer outcome. A higher proportion of childhood onset BD has been reported in studies from USA compared to Europe. We investigated age at onset of first affective episode in a Norwegian sample and compared it to previous European and US findings. In addition, we examined whether age at onset influenced on time to first treatment, and if patient characteristics related to illness severity influenced age at onset.


METHODS
Two hundred and twenty five BD patients were recruited consecutively mainly from psychiatric out-patient units at three major hospitals in Oslo, Norway, diagnosed using SCID-I and divided into four groups based on age at onset.


RESULTS
Six percent of the patients had onset in childhood, 32% in adolescence, 43% in young adulthood, and 19% as adults. Average age at onset was 22.8 years (SD 9.4). There was a significantly higher age at onset and a significantly shorter time from onset to first treatment in patients with lifetime hospitalization.


CONCLUSIONS
Retrospective information which could be confounded by collection bias.


CONCLUSIONS
Age at onset in our sample resembled previous European studies, but not US- or Norwegian studies. The difference in age at onset seems more related to different definitions of onset, than to hospitalization history. This highlights the importance of improving the research criteria and of using similar criteria to ascertain age at onset.
Larsson
Sara
S
Institute of Psychiatry, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. sara.larsson@medisin.uio.no
Lorentzen
Steinar
S
Mork
Erlend
E
Barrett
Elizabeth A
EA
Steen
Nils Eiel
NE
Lagerberg
Trine Vik
TV
Berg
Akiah Ottesen
AO
Aminoff
Sofie R
SR
Agartz
Ingrid
I
Melle
Ingrid
I
Andreassen
Ole A
OA
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D002648:Child; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009664:Norway; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult