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Latency and episodes before treatment: response to lithium maintenance in bipolar I and II disorders 1
Author(s) -
Baldessarini Ross J,
Tondo Leonardo,
Hennen John,
Floris Gianfranco
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
bipolar disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.285
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1399-5618
pISSN - 1398-5647
DOI - 10.1034/j.1399-5618.1999.010206.x
Subject(s) - lithium (medication) , latency (audio) , bipolar disorder , mood stabilizer , medicine , pediatrics , psychiatry , electrical engineering , engineering
Objectives:To test whether longer treatment‐delays or more pretreatment illness episodes are followed by diminished response to lithium maintenance.
Methods: In 360 DSM‐IV bipolar I (n=220) or II (n=140) patients, effects of latency from illness onset to starting lithium and number of pretreatment episodes were evaluated by survival analysis based on the number of months stable before a first recurrence on lithium. Factors associated with treatment latency were identified by regression modeling. Relationships of time, episode number, and morbidity before treatment to the overall proportion of time ill on lithium were also tested by nonparametric correlation.
Results: Latency to first lifetime lithium maintenance averaged 8.3 years, with 9.3 episodes/subject. Time stable before a first recurrence on lithium averaged 29.6 months and was unrelated to treatment latency (in terciles) or to a high (≥ten), intermediate (four–nine), or low (