Demographic Clinical And Treatment Profiles Of Newly Diagnosed Patients With Bipolar Disorder In Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital A Retrospective Chart Review

Background rnBipolar disorders are among the most common severe mental illnesses. They are characterized byrnepisodes of mania, hypomania and depression of various severity. Worldwide the prevalence ofrnthe disorder is similar with little differences across ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status.rnAntipsychotics, mood stabilizers and lithium are among the medications used to treat the disorder. rnObjective rnThe study aimed to identify and describe the clinical profiles, demographic characteristics, andrntreatment trends of newly diagnosed patients with bipolar and related disorders. rnMethodology rnThe study was conducted at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital (AMSH) focusing only on thernnewly diagnosed patients with bipolar disorders. All newly diagnosed patients with bipolarrndisorder who visited the hospital from January 1, 2019 – March 30, 2019 were included in thernstudy. All the data were extracted from the charts of the patients. rnResults: rnRecords of a total of 147 newly diagnosed patients with bipolar disorders were evaluated. Thernstudy showed a comparable proportion of male (47.6%) and female (52.4%) participants. Thernmean age of the patients during their visit to the hospital was 29.57 years with a standard deviationrnof 11.46 years. Aggressiveness 64(43.5%), urge to be on the move 23(15.6%), difficulty ofrnsleeping 18 (12.2%) were the three most common presenting complaints. From the reviewed 147rnrecords, 144 were shown to be bipolar I disorder and the rest 3 were not labelled at all- a simplern“bipolar disorder” was recorded as a diagnosis. Most presented with manic episode with psychoticrnfeatures (42.2%) followed by psychotic features, and depressive episode with psychotic features.rnMore women (n=14) presented with depressive episodes than men (n=7). A total of 57 patientsrnreported/showed various degrees of suicidality, 29 of them had suicidal ideation, while 26 hadrnattempted suicide. All of the patients were prescribed with orally taken antipsychotics. Threernquarter of them were also given mood stabilizing anticonvulsants. 59.2% of the patients werernprescribed with a combination of antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. rnConclusion:rnThe sociodemographic characteristics found from this research is comparable to other studies rnaround the world. Bipolar I disorder was the prevailing diagnosis. Most were found to havernpsychotic features in the study and most had manic episodes at first presentation to the hospital. rnMost of the patients were administered antipsychotics and required emergency admission.

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism