TY - JOUR
T1 - Identifying prior signals of bipolar disorder using primary care electronic health records
T2 - a nested case-control study
AU - Morgan, Catharine
AU - Ashcroft, Darren M
AU - Chew-Graham, Carolyn A
AU - Sperrin, Matthew
AU - Webb, Roger T
AU - Francis, Anya
AU - Scott, Jan
AU - Yung, Alison R
N1 - © The Authors.
PY - 2024/3/1
Y1 - 2024/3/1
N2 - BACKGROUND: Bipolar disorders are serious mental illnesses, yet evidence suggests that the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder can be delayed by around 6 years.AIM: To identify signals of undiagnosed bipolar disorder using routinely collected electronic health records.DESIGN AND SETTING: A nested case-control study conducted using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD dataset, an anonymised electronic primary care patient database linked with hospital records. 'Cases' were adult patients with incident bipolar disorder diagnoses between 1 January 2010 and 31 July 2017.METHOD: The patients with bipolar disorder (the bipolar disorder group) were matched by age, sex, and registered general practice to 20 'controls' without recorded bipolar disorder (the control group). Annual episode incidence rates were estimated and odds ratios from conditional logistic regression models were reported for recorded health events before the index (diagnosis) date.RESULTS: There were 2366 patients with incident bipolar disorder diagnoses and 47 138 matched control patients (median age 40 years and 60.4% female:
n = 1430/2366 with bipolar disorder and
n = 28 471/47 138 without). Compared with the control group, the bipolar disorder group had a higher incidence of diagnosed depressive, psychotic, anxiety, and personality disorders and escalating self-harm up to 10 years before a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Sleep disturbance, substance misuse, and mood swings were more frequent among the bipolar disorder group than the control group. The bipolar disorder group had more frequent face-to-face consultations, and were more likely to miss multiple scheduled appointments and to be prescribed ≥3 different psychotropic medication classes in a given year.
CONCLUSION: Psychiatric diagnoses, psychotropic prescriptions, and health service use patterns might be signals of unreported bipolar disorder. Recognising these signals could prompt further investigation for undiagnosed significant psychopathology, leading to timely referral, assessment, and initiation of appropriate treatments.
AB - BACKGROUND: Bipolar disorders are serious mental illnesses, yet evidence suggests that the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder can be delayed by around 6 years.AIM: To identify signals of undiagnosed bipolar disorder using routinely collected electronic health records.DESIGN AND SETTING: A nested case-control study conducted using the UK Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD) GOLD dataset, an anonymised electronic primary care patient database linked with hospital records. 'Cases' were adult patients with incident bipolar disorder diagnoses between 1 January 2010 and 31 July 2017.METHOD: The patients with bipolar disorder (the bipolar disorder group) were matched by age, sex, and registered general practice to 20 'controls' without recorded bipolar disorder (the control group). Annual episode incidence rates were estimated and odds ratios from conditional logistic regression models were reported for recorded health events before the index (diagnosis) date.RESULTS: There were 2366 patients with incident bipolar disorder diagnoses and 47 138 matched control patients (median age 40 years and 60.4% female:
n = 1430/2366 with bipolar disorder and
n = 28 471/47 138 without). Compared with the control group, the bipolar disorder group had a higher incidence of diagnosed depressive, psychotic, anxiety, and personality disorders and escalating self-harm up to 10 years before a bipolar disorder diagnosis. Sleep disturbance, substance misuse, and mood swings were more frequent among the bipolar disorder group than the control group. The bipolar disorder group had more frequent face-to-face consultations, and were more likely to miss multiple scheduled appointments and to be prescribed ≥3 different psychotropic medication classes in a given year.
CONCLUSION: Psychiatric diagnoses, psychotropic prescriptions, and health service use patterns might be signals of unreported bipolar disorder. Recognising these signals could prompt further investigation for undiagnosed significant psychopathology, leading to timely referral, assessment, and initiation of appropriate treatments.
KW - bipolar disorder
KW - case-control studies
KW - electronic health records
KW - primary health care
KW - prodromal symptoms
KW - signs and symptoms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188013710&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/a24c8ab7-4c12-3f10-a310-f7953a4fb717/
U2 - 10.3399/BJGP.2022.0286
DO - 10.3399/BJGP.2022.0286
M3 - Article
C2 - 38325893
SN - 0960-1643
VL - 74
SP - e165-e173
JO - The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
JF - The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners
IS - 740
ER -