Increased Risk for Dementia in Bipolar Disorder
At the 2020 meeting of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders, researcher Flavio Kapczinski described a recent meta-analysis of 10 studies that found that bipolar disorder is a risk factor for dementia, and that lithium treatment can decrease the incidence of dementia in people with bipolar disorder.
The ten studies included a total of 6,859 participants with bipolar disorder and 487,966 healthy control participants. People with bipolar disorder were 2.96 times more likely to develop dementia than those without bipolar disorder. Five of the studies included information about treatment with lithium, which was found to decrease the risk of dementia among those with bipolar disorder by a little more than half (0.54).
Five studies also revealed that the risk of progression to dementia was higher among those with bipolar disorder than among those with major depressive disorder. In addition, one of the ten studies explored predictors of dementia in people with bipolar disorder and found that those who experienced more mood episodes had a higher risk of dementia.
Editor’s Note: It appears that the number of mood episodes a person experiences predicts dementia, and it has previously been found to predict the emergence of cognitive impairment. Prevention is the name of the game, and lithium is the best defense. My new mantra: “Prevent Episodes, Protect the Brain, Use More Lithium.”
