Psychiatric and medical comorbidities: results from a bipolar elderly cohort study.
OBJECTIVE
Bipolar disorder is associated with concurrent mental and physical disorders. Although well studied among younger adults, less is known about concurrent morbidity among older patients. This is important because comorbidity may increase with age and optimal treatment requires awareness of medical and psychiatric comorbidities. This study analyzed psychiatric and medical comorbidity in a Dutch bipolar elderly cohort.


METHODS
This cross-sectional descriptive study included demographic and clinical data on 101 bipolar patients aged 60 and over (mean age: 68.9 ± 7.8 years); 53.4% were women. Psychiatric diagnoses were confirmed by semistructured diagnostic interviews. Somatic history, including current somatic complaints, was obtained by interview. Medication and indicators of metabolic syndrome were obtained via record review.


RESULTS
Most patients received outpatient care. Bipolar I disorder was diagnosed in 56.4% of patients, and 75.6% had an onset of first affective symptoms before age 50. The prevalence rates of psychiatric comorbidities were low, except for lifetime alcohol dependence (24.8%) and abuse (13.9%). On average, there were 1.7 (SD: 1.6) medical comorbid conditions, predominantly hypertension (27.8%), arthrosis (29.1%), and allergies (25.6%). Polypharmacy was found in 31.7% of patients and metabolic syndrome in 28.7%.


CONCLUSIONS
Psychiatric comorbidity (especially anxiety disorders) was relatively uncommon, except for substance use disorder. Geriatric bipolar patients had on average two comorbid medical conditions and relatively high medication use. Findings underline the need to assess for comorbid conditions in bipolar elders, thereby enabling tailored treatment to optimize the general condition of these patients.
Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: a.dols@ggzingeest.nl.
Annemiek
A
Dols
Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Didi
D
Rhebergen
Department of Psychiatry, GGZ inGeest/VUmc, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Aartjan
A
Beekman
Department of Psychiatry, GGZ inGeest/VUmc, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Ralph
R
Kupka
University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland, OH.
Martha
M
Sajatovic
Department of Old Age Psychiatry, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Max L
ML
Stek
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007406:Interview, Psychological; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology
Somatic; bipolar; comorbidity; elderly; medical; psychiatric