Discuss Bipolar
Blog to discuss being Bipolar
Bipolar disorder patients report more interference from pain than those with major depressive disorder (MDD) or anxiety disorders, and such pain is linked to medical and psychiatric comorbidities, conclude US researchers.
Both MDD and anxiety disorders have been associated with pain, including pain intensity, interference from pain, and pain-related role impairment. However, there has been little investigation of pain in bipolar disorder patients.
Benjamin Goldstein and colleagues from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania therefore studied data from the 2001??”2002 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions, involving a nationally representative sample of 43,093 adults.
Pain interference was determined using a question derived from the Short Form-12 version 2 questionnaire, in addition to which participants were assessed for psychiatric diagnoses, medical comorbidities, and substance use.
In all, 883 patients were diagnosed with bipolar disorder and the remaining participants were classified as non-bipolar disorder patients. There were significant differences between patients with and without bipolar disorder in terms of age, gender, education, marital status, and household income.
In addition, the team found that bipolar disorder patients were significantly more likely to report pain interference scores than other participants, at 24.8% versus 11.9%. Bipolar disorder patients were also significantly more likely than the 2579 patients with MDD and 1436 with anxiety disorders alone to report moderate or greater pain interference, at 24.8% versus 19.3% and 11.0%, respectively.
On logistic regression analysis taking into account confounding factors, bipolar disorder was significantly associated with increased pain interference, at an adjusted odds ratio of 1.57. Increased pain in bipolar disorder patients was linked to comorbid anxiety disorders, marriage, comorbid substance use disorder, white race, arthritis, and other medical disorders, at odds ratios of 1.72, 1.33, 1.91, 0.47, 2.84, and 2.21, respectively. Associations were also found with greater age and lower income.
The team writes in the Journal of Affective Disorders: “We advocate that systematic assessment of pain should be undertaken as part of the management of bipolar disorder, and that this parameter should be monitored during the course of treatment.
“Potential benefits of early identification and treatment of pain among persons with mood and anxiety disorders include reduced pain interference, reduced healthcare costs, and improved mood and anxiety treatment outcomes.”
MedWire (www.medwire-news.md) is an independent clinical news service provided by Current Medicine Group, a part of Springer Science+Business Media. © Current Medicine Group Ltd; 2009
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