Risk factors for conversion from unipolar psychotic depression to bipolar disorder

Abstract

Diagnostic conversion to BD was prevalent among patients with PD. The following characteristics were significantly associated with this conversion: early onset of PD, recurrent depression, living alone, receiving a disability pension, and the highest educational level being a technical education, short-cycle higher education, or medium-cycle higher education.

Conversion from depression to bipolar disorder in a cohort of young people in England, 1999–2011: A national record linkage study

“…The Danish data covered all psychiatric contacts and are, therefore, more comprehensive. Overall, our findings are in keeping with the literature (Goldberg et al, 2001;Ostergaard et al, 2014) in showing a greater rate of conversion to BP from psychotic depression than from unipolar non-psychotic depression.…”

“…The rate of conversion from psychotic depression in this study À 8.12% (95% CI: 7.65-8.62) is similar to that reported in a Danish epidemiological survey (Ostergaard et al, 2014), which reported a rate of 7.1%, with a significant association for those with an early onset of psychotic depression (defined as age o 20 years). The Danish data covered all psychiatric contacts and are, therefore, more comprehensive.…”

“…Young depressed inpatients with psychotic features have been noted to be at especially high risk for eventually developing mania (Goldberg et al, 2001). This finding has been extended to a cohort of 8,588 patients with psychotic depression followed-up between 1995 and 2007 using the Danish Central Psychiatric Research Register, of whom 7.1% developed BP I, significantly those with early onset and recurrent depression (Ostergaard et al, 2014).…”

Rate and predictors of conversion from unipolar to bipolar disorder: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…From Table , it can be seen that two out of eight studies found a statistically significant gender association with conversion, with one finding that female patients converted more frequently and one that they converted less frequently . Among eight studies investigating age at onset, five found that earlier onset was associated with a higher risk of conversion .…”

Rapporteur summaries of plenary, symposia, and oral sessions from the XXIIIrd World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics Meeting in Toronto, Canada, 16–20 October 2015

“…Improving the possibilities for early identification of mental disorder has been a priority in psychiatry for many years (Akiskal et al, 1983; Goldberg et al, 2001; Ostergaard et al, 2014). However, early detection of mental disorders remains challenging due to the absence of strong biological and psychopathological predictors.…”