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Early- versus late-onset bipolar II disorder
1Department of Psychiatry, Morgagni Public Hospital, Forlì, Italy. f.benazzi@fo.nettuno.it
Objective:
To compare the clinical features and the outcome between patients with early- and late-onset bipolar II disorder.
Design:
Case series.
Setting:
Outpatient private practice.
Patients:
One hundred and seventy-nine consecutive outpatients with bipolar II disorder presenting for treatment of a major depressive episode.
Outcome Measures:
Duration of illness, severity of depression, recurrences, psychosis, chronicity, atypical features and comorbidity.
Results:
Patients with early-onset (before 20, 25 or 30 years of age) bipolar II disorder had a significantly longer duration of illness and more recurrences compared with patients with late-onset (after 20, 25 or 30 years of age) bipolar II disorder. All other variables were not significantly different between the 2 groups.
Conclusions:
Indicators of worse outcome (severity of depression, psychosis, chronicity, comorbidity) were not significantly different between patients with early- and late-onset bipolar II disorder.