title: Comparison of clinical and sociodemographic features of bipolar disorder patients with those of social anxiety disorder patients comorbid with bipolar disorder in Turkey.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the impact of social anxiety disorder (SAD) comorbidity on the clinical features, illness severity, and response to mood stabilizers in bipolar disorder (BD) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  This retrospective study included bipolar patients that were treated at the Department of Psychiatry, Haseki Training and Research Hospital, Istanbul, Turkey in 2015, and who provided their informed consents for participation in this study. The study was conducted by assessing patient files retrospectively. Two hundred bipolar patients were assessed using the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition axis-I (SCID-I) in order to detect all possible comorbid psychiatric diagnoses. The sample was split according to the presence of SAD comorbidity and the groups were compared.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The SAD comorbidity was detected in 17.5% (35/200) of the BD patients. The SAD comorbid bipolar patients were more educated, had earlier onset of BD, lower number of manic episodes, and more severe episodes. There was no difference between groups in terms of total number of episodes, hospitalization, suicidality, being psychotic, treatment response to lithium and anticonvulsants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Social anxiety disorder comorbidity may be associated with more severe episodes and early onset of BD. However, SAD comorbidity may not be related to treatment response in bipolar patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, DışkapıYıldırım Beyazıt Research and Training Hospital, Ankara, Turkey. E-mail. tberkol@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Tonguç D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Berkol
authors.forename: Ebru
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kırlı
authors.forename: Serkan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Islam
authors.forename: Rasim
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pınarbaşı
authors.forename: İlker
authors.initials: İ
authors.lastname: Özyıldırım
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000927:Anticonvulsants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018692:Antimanic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D018020:Lithium Compounds / Q000627:therapeutic use; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000072861:Phobia, Social / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D059020:Suicidal Ideation; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D000927:Anticonvulsants; D018692:Antimanic Agents; D018020:Lithium Compounds