[Ten-Year Risk of Cardiovascular Disease in Patients with Bipolar Disorder]

Patients with bipolar disorder (BPD) are less likely to seek treatment for cardiovascular diseases (CVD) despite the two fold increased CVD-related death rate in BPD. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between clinical variables, exercise characteristics and 10-year risk of CVD in patients with bipolar I disorder (BPD-I).

The study was carried out with 106 euthymic BPD-I patients who were followed up at the Mood Disorders Centers of Bakırköy Hospital for Mental and Neurological Diseases and Selcuk University Faculty of Medicine. The physical activity status of the patients were evaluated with the Godin Leisure-Time Exercise Questionnaire (GLTEQ) and the prospective 10-year risk of CVD was assessed by the QRISK®2-2017 - CVD risk algorithm.

Mean age of the patients were 39.5±8.6 years. The mean QRISK2 score of the patients was 3.64±0.46 %, which did not differ with respect to the gender. Patients' mean healthy heart age (QAGE) was 8.49±6.46 years ahead of their current age. There was a weak negative correlation between GLTEQ total score and QRISK2 score (r= 0.168), but this was not statistically significant. However, statistically significant positive correlations were determined between the categorical QRISK2 score and the disease age of onset (RR:1.18; 95%CI:1.09-1.28), treatment duration (RR:1.16; 95%CI:1.05-1.29) and the inclusion of atypical antipsychotic agents in the treatment received (RR:5.99; 95%CI:1.12-31.90).

A strong positive correlation was determined in this study between the QRISK2 score and the use of atypical antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of the BPD-I patients. It is important to identify patients diagnosed with bipolar disorder with a high risk of developing CVD to review the psychiatric treatment and to encourage the patients for preventive approaches.