Persistence of Mild Depression Is Risk Factor for Relapse into Full-Blown Episodes

July 11, 2010 · Posted in Risk Factors 

In naturalistically treated bipolar patients, depression is three times more prevalent than manic symptoms  (according to studies by Judd et al., Kupka et al., and Ezquiaga et al.). The occurrence of even residual depression or subsyndromal symptoms can be highly impairing, and is a predictor of increased likelihood for subsequent relapse, according to a poster presented by Gitlin et al. at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Francisco in May 2009.

These new data support that of a large number of other investigators who have made similar observations, all indicating the importance of attempting to achieve full remission as a major goal of clinical therapeutics in order to decrease likelihood of relapse. Gitlin’s study further indicated that impairment of quality of life in bipolar patients was closely related to the degree of their subsyndromal symptomatology.

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