Irregular eating patterns associate with hypomanic symptoms in bipolar disorders

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Chronobiology
• Nutritional Psychiatry

Background:

• Bipolar disorder (BD) is characterized by mood fluctuations.
• The temporal patterns of daily behaviors, including eating, may be disrupted in BD.
• Understanding these disruptions can offer new insights into BD pathophysiology.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce novel dimensional methods for quantifying the temporal stability of eating patterns.
• To investigate the relationship between mood states in BD and the regularity of daily eating events.
• To explore potential correlations between eating timing irregularities and psychopathological symptoms.

Main Methods:

• Sixty-nine patients with BD completed two-week hourly charts of mood and eating.
• Mood was assessed using the Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS).
• Novel quantitative indices (I ^FRQ, I ^TIM, I ^INT) were computed to measure eating pattern irregularities.

Main Results:

• Irregularities in the temporal pattern of eating were visualized using 'eatograms'.
• Increased eating pattern irregularity correlated significantly with hypomanic symptoms (YMRS scores).
• No significant correlations were found between eating irregularities and depressive symptoms or anthropometric measures.

Conclusions:

• The study suggests a link between the instability of daily eating timing and mood in bipolar disorder.
• The developed dimensional measures provide a tool for future research on eating patterns and psychopathology.
• These findings highlight the potential role of chronobiological eating disruptions in BD.