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Researchers into schizophrenia have shown that duration of untreated illness (starting with prodromes) and of untreated psychosis (starting with the first psychotic symptoms) through initiation of adequate antipsychotic treatment has prognostic significance and suggests opportunities for earlier interventions. Applying this concept to bipolar disorder, investigators in France retrospectively examined the duration of untreated bipolar disorder (DUB; from time of first mood episode to first initiation of a guideline-recommended mood stabilizer) in relation to disease course and outcomes. Participants were 418 carefully ascertained patients with bipolar I and 83 with bipolar II disorder.
Mean age at onset was 25.3 years, at first psychiatric tr…