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. 2024 Sep-Oct:90:6-11.
doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2024.06.004. Epub 2024 Jun 12.

Physical comorbidities of older age bipolar disorder (OABD) patients: A global replication analysis of prevalence and sex differences

Antonio L Teixeira  1 , Osvaldo P Almeida  2 , Paola Lavin  3 , Izabela G Barbosa  4 , Martin Alda  5 , Kursat Altinbas  6 , Vicent Balanzá-Martínez  7 , Farren B S Briggs  8 , Cynthia Calkin  9 , Peijun Chen  10 , Annemieke Dols  11 , Lisa T Eyler  12 , Brent P Forester  13 , Orestes V Forlenza  14 , Ariel G Gildengers  15 , Tomas Hajek  5 , Benno Haarman  16 , Nicole Korten  11 , Esther Jimenez  17 , Beny Lafer  18 , Jennifer B Levin  10 , Laura Montejo  19 , Paula V Nunes  18 , Andrew T Olagunju  20 , Stephen Oluwaniyi  21 , Mardien L Oudega  22 , Regan E Patrick  23 , Joaquim Radua  24 , Soham Rej  3 , Sigfried Schouws  25 , Jair C Soares  26 , Ashley N Sutherland  12 , Eduard Vieta  19 , Joy Yala  27 , Martha Sajatovic  10
Affiliations

Physical comorbidities of older age bipolar disorder (OABD) patients: A global replication analysis of prevalence and sex differences

Antonio L Teixeira et al. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2024 Sep-Oct.

Abstract

Objectives: To compare the prevalence of physical morbidities between older aged patients with bipolar disorder (OABD) and non-psychiatric comparisons (NC), and to analyze sex differences in prevalence.

Methods: OABD was defined as bipolar disorder among adults aged ≥50 years. Outcomes analyzed were the prevalence of diseases affecting the cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, renal, musculoskeletal, and endocrine systems. The analysis used cross-sectional data of OABD participants (n = 878; mean age 60.9 ± 8.0 years, n = 496 (56%) women) from the collaborative Global Aging & Geriatric Experiments in Bipolar Disorder (GAGE-BD) dataset and NC participants recruited at the same sites (n = 355; mean age 64.4 ± 9.7 years, n = 215 (61%) women).

Results: After controlling for sex, age, education, and smoking history, the OABD group had more cardiovascular (odds ratio [95% confidence interval]: 2.12 [1.38-3.30]), renal (5.97 [1.31-43.16]), musculoskeletal (2.09 [1.30-3.43]) and endocrine (1.90 [1.20-3.05]) diseases than NC. Women with OABD had more gastrointestinal (1.56 [0.99-2.49]), genitourinary (1.72 [1.02-2.92]), musculoskeletal (2.64 [1.66-4.37]) and endocrine (1.71 [1.08-2.73]) comorbidities than men with OABD, when age, education, smoking history, and study site were controlled.

Conclusions: This replication GAGE-BD study confirms previous findings indicating that OABD present more physical morbidities than matched comparison participants, and that this health burden is significantly greater among women.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Elderly; Geriatrics; Older age bipolar disorder; Physical illness; Psychiatry; Sex differences.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest VB-M has received honoraria from Angelini, unrelated to the present work. JBL has received grant funding from NIH, AHA, and Merck. EV has received grants and served as consultant, advisor or CME speaker for the following entities: AB-Biotics, AbbVie, Adamed, Angelini, Biogen, Biohaven, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Celon Pharma, Compass, Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma, Ethypharm, Ferrer, Gedeon Richter, GH Research, Glaxo-Smith Kline, HMNC, Idorsia, Johnson & Johnson, Lundbeck, Medincell, Merck, Novartis, Orion Corporation, Organon, Otsuka, Roche, Rovi, Sage, Sanofi-Aventis, Sunovion, Takeda, and Viatris, outside the submitted work.