Bipolar disorder in later life: lifestyle and physical health

To review the association between bipolar disorder in later life, lifestyle measures and physical health.

Unhealthy lifestyle behaviours are more frequent among individuals with than without bipolar disorder, and recent retrospective cohort studies using the UK Biobank and Primary Care Clinical Practice Research Datalink have produced results suggesting that hazardous lifestyles may individually and together increase the risk of incident bipolar disorder, including later in life. In addition, new investigations using data from the GAGE-BD consortium and the Australian Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme suggest that physical health morbidities are generally more prevalent among older women than men with bipolar disorder.

The findings of recent studies indicate that bipolar disorder is associated with unhealthy or hazardous lifestyles and that the association between them may be reciprocal. Lifestyle behaviours seem to have additive effects on physical morbidity, and this may help guide the introduction of harm-minimisation interventions. Bipolar disorder is also associated with high physical health burden, which seems to be more pronounced in women than men. The reasons behind such sex-discrepancy are unclear.