Bipolar Disorder Is Bad for Your Health

As with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder has been associated with elevated mortality. However, much of that research has been based on patients with early onset disease (age, <15 years). These researchers used Danish nationwide registries to examine life expectancy in patients diagnosed throughout the lifespan. The data covered all 22,752 individuals with inpatient or outpatient diagnoses of bipolar disorder from 1970 through 2012 who were alive in 2000 (13,650 women).

Regardless of age at diagnosis, life expectancy in patients was less than in the general Danish population. However, as age at diagnosis increased, the differences gradually diminished, as did the ratio of life expectancy in the bipolar group to that in the general population. …