Antidepressants have complex associations with longitudinal depressive burden in bipolar disorder
Abstract
Antidepressants are common in bipolar disorder (BD), but controversial due to questionable efficacy/tolerability. We assessed baseline antidepressant use/depression associations in BD. Stanford BD Clinic outpatients, enrolled during 2000-2011, assessed with the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for BD (STEP-BD) Affective Disorders Evaluation, were monitored up to two years with the STEP-BD Clinical Monitoring Form while receiving naturalistic expert treatment. Prevalence/correlates of baseline antidepressant use in recovered (euthymic ≥8 weeks)/depressed patients were assessed. Kaplan-Meier survival analyses assessed times to depressive recurrence/recovery in patients with/without baseline antidepressant use, and Cox Proportional Hazard regression analyses assessed covariate effects. Baseline antidepressant use was significantly (albeit without Bonferroni multiple comparison correction) less among 105 recovered (31.4%) versus 153 depressed (44.4%) patients, and among recovered patients (again without Bonferroni correction), associated with Caucasian race, earlier onset, worse Clinical Global Impression scores, and hastened depressive recurrence (only if mood elevation episodes were not censored), driven by lifetime anxie...Continue Reading
References
Antidepressants for the acute treatment of bipolar depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Citations
Related Concepts
Related Feeds
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is characterized by manic and/or depressive episodes and associated with uncommon shifts in mood, activity levels, and energy. Discover the latest research this illness here.