Research view
Title: | Correlates of psychiatric co-morbidity in a sample of Egyptian patients with bipolar disorder |
Author: | Tarek Asaad , Tarek Okasha , Hisham Ramy , Mohamed Fekry , Nivert Zaki , Hanan Azzam , Menan AbdelMaksoud Rabie , Soheir Elghoneimy , Marwa Sultan , Hani Hamed , Osama Refaat , Iman Shorab , Mahmoud Elhabiby , Tamer Elgweily , Hanan ElShinnawy , Mohamed Nasr , Heba Fathy , Marwa A. Meguid , Doaa Nader , Doha Elserafi , Dalia Enaba , Dina Ibrahim , Marwa Elmissiry , Nesreen Mohsen , Sherin Ahmed |
Abstract: |
Background and objectives: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a complex, chronic mood disorder involving repeated
episodes of depression and mania/hypomania. Two thirds of patients with bipolar disorder have a
comorbid psychiatric condition. This study aims to assess the prevalence of Axis I diagnosis with its
socio-demographic and clinical correlates among a sample of Egyptian patients with bipolar disorder.
Methods: Out of the 400 patients who were enrolled in the study from number of governmental and
private psychiatric hospitals in Cairo, Egypt, 350 patients diagnosed with bipolar affective disorders (157
females and 193 males) with age ranging from 18 to 55 years were selected. Patients were assessed using
the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorder (Research Version) (SCID-I).
Results: Prevalence of psychiatric comorbidity among BD patients was 20.3% (71 patients) among which
63 patients (18%) had comorbid substance abuse and 8 patients (2.3%) had comorbid anxiety disorders.
Limitations: The study was limited by its cross sectional design with some patients having florid
symptoms during assessment, not having a well representative community sample. This might have
decreased the reliability and prevalence of lifetime psychiatric comorbidity due to uncooperativeness or
memory bias. The study group was composed of bipolar patients attending tertiary care service which
limits the possibility of generalizing these results on different treatment settings.
Conclusions: Substance abuse followed by anxiety disorders was found to be the most common
psychiatric comorbidity. Family history of psychiatric disorders and substance abuse as well as current
psychotic features were highly correlated with comorbidity.
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Journal: | 2014 Elsevier B.V. |
Text: | |
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