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The prevalence of mixed episodes during the course of illness in bipolar disorder
Author(s) -
Kessing L. V.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
acta psychiatrica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.849
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1600-0447
pISSN - 0001-690X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2007.01131.x
Subject(s) - bipolar disorder , psychiatry , bipolar illness , medicine , bipolar i disorder , pediatrics , mania , mood
Objective: To investigate the prevalence of mixed episodes during the course of illness in bipolar disorder. Method: A total of 1620 patients with an ICD‐10 diagnosis of bipolar affective disorder at the first psychiatric contact were identified in a period from 1994 to 2003 in Denmark and the prevalence of mixed, depressive and hypomanic/manic episodes were calculated at each episode. Results: The prevalence of mixed episodes increased from the first episode to the tenth episode, however, only for women (6.7% of the first episodes leading to psychiatric care compared with 18.2% of the tenth episodes). For men, the prevalence of mixed episodes was constantly low. At all episodes, the presence of a current mixed episode increased the risk substantially of getting a future mixed episode. Conclusion: Clinicians should pay more attention to mixed episodes, especially among women, as they may represent an increasing treatment challenge as the illness progress.