Electronic Medical Records May Hold Early Signs of Bipolar Disorder in Adults

TUESDAY, Nov. 7, 2023 (HealthDay News) — Psychiatric diagnoses, psychotropic prescriptions, and health service use patterns might be signals of undiagnosed bipolar disorder (BD), according to a study published online Oct. 11 in the British Journal of General Practice.

Catharine Morgan, Ph.D., from University of Manchester in the United Kingdom, and colleagues identified signals of undiagnosed BD using routinely collected electronic health records. The U.K. Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD dataset was used to identify 2,366 adult patients with incident BD diagnoses (Jan. 1, 2010, to July 31, 2017) and 47,138 matched controls.

The researchers found that compared with controls, BD cases had a higher incidence of diagnosed depressive, psychotic, anxiety, and personality disorders recorded, as well as escalating self-harm, up to 10 years before BD diagnosis. Additionally, sleep disturbance, substance misuse, and mood swings were more frequent among cases versus controls. In a given year, cases had more frequent face-to-face consultations, were more likely to miss multiple scheduled appointments, and were prescribed three different psychotropic medication classes.

“Recognizing these signals could prompt further investigation for undiagnosed significant psychopathology, leading to timely referral, assessment, and initiation of appropriate treatments,” the authors write. 

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