Demographic profile and clinical variables of patients with bipolar disorder in out-patient setting in Thanjavur Medical College- retrospective study

A retrospective analysis was made to ascertain the status of bipolar disorder (BPD) in relation to demographic and clinical variables in outpatient unit setting. Data from all the BPD case records were collected from the year 2009 to 2011 and analysed. A total of 815 (13.4) cases from 6121 out patients were included for the study. The percentage of BPD cases was 12.9, 12.7 and 14.7 for the year 2009-2011 respectively. Among the cases BPD type I was more prevalent with a pooled mean of 94.6 and while BPD type II was 5.4. There was a significant (p0.05) increase in below-19 age group with 9.9 in the year 2011 compared to 6.9 and 8.0 for the 2009 and 2010 respectively. Presence of history of attempted suicide (16), family history of suicide (18.5) and family history of mental illness (28.8) were observed in the present study. The use of alcohol in BPD cases was 25.3 for the year 2011 which was significantly (p0.05) higher compared to 16.2 and 20.1 for the years 2009 and 2010 and this result indicates that use of alcohol in BPD patients increasing gradually over the years . It may be concluded that BPD is prevalent in 13.4 of total psychiatric patients, and BPD I was more compared to BPD II. There is preponderance towards the young age and comorbid substance use (alcohol) is commonly observed and that should be addressed for better outcome of the disorder.