Patients with bipolar disorder who perceive their overall physical health as poor experience worse disease outcomes, according to Emily E. Bernstein of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., and her associates.
Data were collected from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder and were analyzed via the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). An increased sense of role limitation increased the risk of depressive symptoms, while increased physical pain raised the risk of mania/hypomania. “Reports of specific or concrete physical limitations in daily life showed no associations with psychiatric symptoms at concurrent assessments, but did predict worse course of illness” 1 year later, the researchers wrote.
“Though further research is warranted, changes in subjective physical health–related quality of life, even independent of objective health changes, may offer important insight into global well-being and be targets of psychotherapy treatment,” they concluded.
Find the study in the Journal of Affective Disorders (doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2015.09.052).