The Presentation, Recognition and Management of Bipolar Depression in Primary Care.
The Presentation, Recognition and Management of Bipolar Depression in Primary Care.
J Gen Intern Med. 2013 Jul 9;
Cerimele JM, Chwastiak LA, Chan YF, Harrison DA, Unützer J
Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder characterized by episodes of major depression and mania or hypomania. Most patients experience chronic symptoms of bipolar disorder approximately half of the time, most commonly subsyndromal depressive symptoms or a full depressive episode with concurrent manic symptoms. Consequently, patients with bipolar depression are often misdiagnosed with major depressive disorder. Individual patient characteristics and population screening tools may be helpful in improving recognition of bipolar depression in primary care. Health risk behaviors including tobacco use, sedentary activity level and weight gain are highly prevalent in patients with bipolar disorder, as are the comorbid chronic diseases such as diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease. Patients with bipolar illness have about an eight-fold higher risk of suicide and a two-fold increased risk of death from chronic medical illnesses. Recognition of bipolar depression and its associated health risk behaviors and chronic medical problems can lead to the use of appropriate interventions for patients with bipolar disorder, which differ in important ways from the treatments used for major depressive disorder. The above topics are reviewed in detail in this article. HubMed – depression
Trends in Depressive Symptom Burden Among Older Adults in the United States from 1998 to 2008.
J Gen Intern Med. 2013 Jul 9;
Zivin K, Pirraglia PA, McCammon RJ, Langa KM, Vijan S
Diagnosis and treatment of depression has increased over the past decade in the United States. Whether self-reported depressive symptoms among older adults have concomitantly declined is unknown.To examine trends in depressive symptoms among older adults in the US between 1998 and 2008.Serial cross-sectional analysis of six biennial assessments.Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally-representative survey. PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Adults aged 55 and older (N?=?16,184 in 1998).The eight-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression scale (CES-D8) assessed three levels of depressive symptoms (none?=?0, elevated?=?4+, severe?=?6+), adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics.Having no depressive symptoms increased over the 10-year period from 40.9 % to 47.4 % (prevalence ratio [PR]: 1.16, 95 % CI: 1.13-1.19), with significant increases in those aged ? 60 relative to those aged 55-59. There was a 7 % prevalence reduction of elevated symptoms from 15.5 % to 14.2 % (PR: 0.93, 95 % CI: 0.88-0.98), which was most pronounced among those aged 80-84 in whom the prevalence of elevated symptoms declined from 14.3 % to 9.6 %. Prevalence of having severe depressive symptoms increased from 5.8 % to 6.8 % (PR: 1.17, 95 % CI: 1.06-1.28); however, this increase was limited to those aged 55-59, with the probability of severe symptoms increasing from 8.7 % to 11.8 %. No significant changes in severe symptoms were observed for those aged ? 60.Overall late-life depressive symptom burden declined significantly from 1998 to 2008. This decrease appeared to be driven primarily by greater reductions in depressive symptoms in the oldest-old, and by an increase in those with no depressive symptoms. These changes in symptom burden were robust to physical, functional, demographic, and economic factors. Future research should examine whether this decrease in depressive symptoms is associated with improved treatment outcomes, and if there have been changes in the treatment received for the various age cohorts. HubMed – depression
Days with pain and substance use disorders: is there an association?
Clin J Pain. 2013 Aug; 29(8): 689-95
Edlund MJ, Sullivan MD, Han X, Booth BM
We investigated possible associations between pain frequency and the 5 most common substance use disorders: alcohol abuse/dependence, cocaine abuse/dependence, methamphetamine abuse/dependence, opioid abuse/dependence, and marijuana abuse/dependence.We used data from the Rural Stimulant Study, a longitudinal (7 waves), observational study of at-risk stimulant users (cocaine and methamphetamine) in Arkansas and Kentucky (n=462). In fixed-effects logistic regression models, we regressed our measures of substance use disorders on the number of days with pain in the past 30 days and depression severity.Time periods when individuals had 1 to 15 days [odds ratio (OR)=1.85, P<0.001] or 16+ days (OR=2.18, P<0.001) with pain in the past 30 days were more likely to have a diagnosis of alcohol abuse/dependence, compared with time periods when individuals had no days with pain. Compared with time periods when individuals had no pain days in the past 30 days, time periods when individuals had 16+ pain days were more likely to have a diagnosis of opioid abuse/dependence (OR=3.32, P=0.02). Number of days with pain was not significantly associated with other substance use disorders.Pain frequency seems to be associated with an increased risk for alcohol abuse/dependence and opioid abuse/dependence in this population, and the magnitude of the association is medium to large. Further research is needed to investigate this in more representative populations and to determine causal relationships. HubMed – depression