title: Comorbid personality disorders in subjects with bipolar I disorder.
abstract: Objective. The purpose of this study was to present the frequencies of personality disorders in a sample of bipolar I patients and to investigate whether the presence of comorbid personality disorders affect the course of bipolar illness.
  
  
  METHODS
  Seventy euthymic bipolar I patients were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Personality Disorders (SCID II). Bipolar patients with comorbid personality disorder were compared with those of without personality disorder comorbidity on demographic and clinical variables.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Forty bipolar I patients (57%) had at least one comorbid personality disorder. The most common personality disorder cluster was cluster C (36%), followed by cluster B (17%) and cluster A (17%) personality disorders. The most prevalent personality disorder in the whole group was obsessive-compulsive personality disorder (21%). Patients with comorbid personality disorders had an earlier age of onset than those of without comorbidity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the rates of comorbid personality disorders are high in bipolar I patients, the presence of comorbidity has no relevant impact on the course of bipolar I patients except for earlier age of onset of bipolar I disorder.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Harran University Faculty of Medicine, Sanliurfa, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdurrahman
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Altindag
authors.forename: Medaim
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yanik
authors.forename: Melike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nebioglu
keywords: Bipolar; age of onset; comorbidity; personality disorders; prevalence