Anxious bipolar patients show suicidal tendencies: ongoing STEP-BD study.PITTSBURGH -- Bipolar patients who have some type of anxiety disorder--either current or lifetime--are significantly more likely to attempt suicide than patients without comorbid anxiety, Dr. Gary Sachs said at the Fifth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder. Dr. Sachs, director of the Harvard Bipolar Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, presented data from the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD), a multi-center study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health. "STEP is not set up to answer one question but many questions," Dr. Sachs said at the conference, which was sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh. The STEP-BD study has been in progress for more than 4 years and involves 22 treatment centers. The study's primary goals are to enroll patients in every phase of bipolar disorder--manic, depressive, mixed, and euthymic--and then assess the effectiveness of treatments across a broad spectrum of patients in every region and ethnic group. So far, approximately half the patients with depression or mixed bipolar episodes have had suicidal ideation upon entry into the STEP study, and anxiety disorders appear to factor into it. Of the first 500 patients enrolled in STEP-BD, 52.8% of patients with bipolar I and 46.1% of patients with bipolar II had a comorbid anxiety disorder. Overall, 60.3% of patients with any current anxiety disorder and 52.1% of patients with any lifetime anxiety disorder had attempted suicide at least once, compared with 27.4% of patients with no current anxiety disorder and 22.1% of patients with no lifetime anxiety disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder Posttraumatic stress disorder An anxiety disorder in some individuals who have experienced an event that poses a direct threat to the individual's or another person's life. (PTSD PTSD posttraumatic stress disorder. PTSD abbr. posttraumatic stress disorder Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ) was the anxiety disorder most strongly associated with suicide--75% of patients with current comorbid PTSD had attempted suicide. Bipolar patients with comorbid generalized anxiety disorder Generalized Anxiety Disorder Definition Generalized anxiety disorder is a condition characterized by "free floating" anxiety or apprehension not linked to a specific cause or situation. , agoraphobia Agoraphobia Definition The word agoraphobia is derived from Greek words literally meaning "fear of the marketplace." The term is used to describe an irrational and often disabling fear of being out in public. with and without panic disorder, social anxiety disorder so·cial anxiety disorder n. See social phobia. , or obsessive-compulsive disorder were significantly more likely to have attempted suicide, compared with bipolar patients without a comorbid anxiety disorder. For more information on the STEP-BD study, go to www.stepbd.org. |
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