Facing Life in Old Age: Exploring Resilience in Older Adults with Bipolar Disorder

Background: Older adults with bipolar disorder (OABD) are individuals aged 50 years and older with bipolar disorder (BD). People with BD may have fewer coping strategies or resilience. A long duration of the disease, as seen in this population, could affect the development of resilience strategies, but this remains under-researched. Therefore, this study aims to assess resilience levels within the OABD population and explore associated factors, hypothesizing that resilience could improve psychosocial functioning, wellbeing and quality of life of these patients. Methods: This study sampled 33 OABD patients from the cohort at the Bipolar and Depressive Disorders Unit of the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona. It was an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional study. Demographic and clinical variables as well as psychosocial functioning, resilience and cognitive reserve were analyzed. Resilience was measured using the CD-RISC-10. Non-parametric tests were used for statistical analysis. Results: The average CD-RISC-10 score was 25.67 points (SD 7.87). Resilience negatively correlated with the total number of episodes (p = 0.034), depressive episodes (p = 0.001), and the FAST (p < 0.001). Participants with normal resilience had a lower psychosocial functioning (p = 0.046), a higher cognitive reserve (p = 0.026), and earlier onset (p = 0.037) compared to those with low resilience. Conclusions: OABD individuals may have lower resilience levels which correlate with more psychiatric episodes, especially depressive episodes and worse psychosocial functioning and cognitive reserve. Better understanding and characterization of resilience could help in early identification of patients requiring additional support to foster resilience and enhance OABD management.