title: Health-related quality of life as measured by the child health questionnaire in adolescents with bipolar disorder treated with olanzapine.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in adolescents with bipolar disorder before and after double-blind treatment with olanzapine or placebo.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents or legal guardians of 160 adolescents with a manic or mixed episode associated with bipolar I disorder were asked to rate their child's health using the Child Health Questionnaire-Parental Form 50 at baseline, before receiving medication, and then again at the end of participation in a 3-week double-blind placebo-controlled study of olanzapine.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adolescents in both treatment groups began and ended the study with significantly lower scores than normalized values of healthy peers on several HRQoL subscales (lower ratings indicate more impaired functioning), especially those assessing psychosocial factors. However, participants receiving olanzapine exhibited greater improvement than those in the placebo group across multiple HRQoL subscales, including the Behavior, Family activities, and Mental health subscales. Reduction in manic symptoms was associated with improvement in HRQoL values.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  As expected, manic adolescents with bipolar disorder exhibit abnormalities in psychosocial, rather than physical factors associated with HRQoL. Treatment with olanzapine had a greater effect on multiple domains of psychosocial functioning compared with placebo, suggesting that in addition to improving manic symptoms, pharmacologic interventions may lessen some of psychosocial deficits experienced by adolescents with bipolar disorder. However, following 3 weeks of treatment, adolescents with bipolar disorder continued to exhibit deficits in several aspects of psychosocial functioning, indicating that additional pharmacologic and psychosocial interventions may be necessary to further improve functional outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Division of Bipolar Disorder Research, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Brian T
authors.initials: BT
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: Stephen J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Ganocy
authors.forename: Samantha M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Bitter
authors.forename: Robert L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Findling
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Case
authors.forename: Kiki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Mauricio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tohen
authors.forename: Melissa P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: DelBello
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001569:Benzodiazepines / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology*; D004311:Double-Blind Method; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D000077152:Olanzapine; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents; D001569:Benzodiazepines; D000077152:Olanzapine