Has Bipolar Disorder become a predominantly female gender related condition? Analysis of recently published large sample studies

Abstract

Bipolar Disorders (BD) are disabling and severe psychiatric disorders, commonly perceived as equally affecting both men and women. The prevalence of BD in the general population has been growing over the last decade, however, few epidemiological studies are available regarding BD gender distribution, leaving unanswered the question whether the often reported increment of BD diagnosis could be gender specific. In fact, BD in female patients can often be misdiagnosed as MDD, leaving such women non correctly treated for longer times than their male counterparts. From this perspective, we searched literature for large sample (> 1000 subjects) studies published in the last decade (2010 onward) on BD patients. We included ten large sample studies that reported the gender distribution of their samples, and we therefore analysed them. Our results show a higher preponderance of female patients in every sample and sub-sample of BDI and BDII, supporting our hypothesis of an increase in BD diagnosis in females. BD in women presents with higher rates of rapid cycling, depressive polarity and suicide attempts, characteristics of non inferior severity compared to males; prompt recognition and adequate treatment of BD is therefore crucial to reduce risks and improve quality of life of affected women. In this regard, our results could lead the way for national or international epidemiological studies with the aim of more accurately assessing gender-specific prevalence of BD.

Keywords: Bipolar disorders; Female gender; Gender differences; Prevalence.

Fig. 1

Gender distribution in Bipolar Disorder as shown in the main large sample studies of the last ten years. a Graphic representation of gender distribution in 9 main large sample studies, reported as percentage of female and male participants upon the total number of BD patients; b percentages of females and males in BD type-specific samples; c gender distribution of three samples, confronted with the BD type-specific composition of the samples. BDI = Bipolar Disorder type I; BDII  Bipolar Disorder type II.