Effects of childhood trauma and clinical features on determining quality of life in patients with bipolar I disorder.
BACKGROUND
We explored how childhood trauma (CHT) affects the clinical expression of disorder and quality of life in patients with bipolar I (BP-I) disorder.


METHODS
Euthymic patients (n=116) who subsequently received a diagnosis of BP-I disorder were consecutively included and were interviewed using the following sociodemographic and clinical data forms; Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Childhood Abuse and Neglect Questionnaire (CANQ) and the 36-item Medical Outcome Study Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). The quality of life of BP-I patients with and without a history of CHT were examined.


RESULTS
The percentage of trauma was 61.2%. Patients who had CHT had higher frequencies of depressive episodes (t=-2.38, p=0.019), total episodes (t=-2.25, p=0.026), attempted suicide more often (χ(2)=18.12, p=0.003) and had lower scores on the pain subscale of the SF-36 (z=-2.817, p=0.005). In patients with mixed or rapid-cycling episodes, SF-36 subscale scores except general health and pain were found to be lower.


CONCLUSIONS
Our sample may fail to reflect the general BD population; the patients were included consecutively and consisted of a majority of female patients.


CONCLUSIONS
CHT plays an important role in the clinical expression of BP-I disorder and having mixed/rapid-cycling episodes negatively affects both physical and mental components, as measured by the SF-36. While both males and females reported experiencing sexual abuse, female BP-I patients complained about pain more often. It is suggested that treatment of BP-I patients with a history of CHT should differ from that provided for patients with no CHT history.
Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address: evrimerten@yahoo.com.tr.
Evrim
E
Erten
Esenyurt State Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey.
Aslı
A
Funda Uney
Isik University, Department of Psychology, Istanbul, Turkey.
Ömer
Ö
Saatçioğlu
Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey.
Armağan
A
Özdemir
Bakirkoy Research and Training Hospital for Psychiatry, Neurology and Neurosurgery, Istanbul, Turkey.
Nurhan
N
Fıstıkçı
Istanbul AREL University, Psychology Department, Istanbul, Turkey.
Duran
D
Çakmak
D000328:Adult; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D055815:Young Adult
Bipolar disorder; Childhood trauma; Pain; Quality of life