Accuracy of the number of previous episodes reported by patients with bipolar disorder.

MARTINO D.J., MARENGO E., IGOA A., SCÁPOLA M., URTUETA-BAAMONDE M., STREJILEVICH S.A.

COMPREHENSIVE PSYCHIATRY

W B SAUNDERS CO-ELSEVIER INC

Lugar: Philadelphia; Año: 2016 vol. 65 p. 122 - 127

0010-440X

Background: The number of previous episodes in patients with BD is a variable widely used both for clinical and research purposes. The aim of this study was to compare the number of episodes reported retrospectively by patients with euthymic BD and their psychiatrists during a follow-up period. Methods: Fifty euthymic patients with BD and more than 2 years of follow-up were retrospectively asked in a standardized fashion about the number of hypo/manic and depressive episodes suffered during that period. This response was compared with the number of episodes registered during the same period in the life chart by his/her psychiatrists. Results: The mean follow-up of patients was 66.70 months. There was a mean difference of 2.74 episodes between reports of patients and their psychiatrists during the complete follow-up period; Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was 0.40 (IC95%=0.15-0.61). This difference increase with the duration of the follow-up period (R=0.33, p=0.023) and with the number of episodes occurred during the follow-up (R=0.32, p=0.023). The difference in the number of depressive episodes reported from patients and psychiatrists during the follow-up period was higher in than in BDI (Z=-2.47, p=0.014), and it also correlated with the number of previous depressive episodes at baseline (R=0.28, p=0.047) and subclinical depressive symptoms (R=0.41, p=0.003). Conclusions: The number of previous episodes referred for patients with BD is an unreliable measure of the true number of episodes suffered. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.