AsianScientist (Feb. 7, 2017) – Having a family history of bipolar disorder is associated with a higher risk of violence during hospitalization for a manic relapse, according to a study published in the Sri Lanka Journal of Psychiatry.
“Bipolar spectrum disorders affect about 4.5 percent of the general population. It is a mood disorder marked by alternate depressive and manic episodes,” explained study lead author Dr. Miyuru Chandradasa, of the Department of Psychiatry at University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
“During depressive episodes, patients may have low energy, feel lethargic and suicidal while during manic episodes, they may have high energy and be very active.”
The risk of violence to others occurs mostly during the manic episodes. To see if family history could predict which patients were at the highest risk of violence, Chandradasa, along with Dr. Layani Champika from the Teaching Hospital Peradeniya, Kandy, and Dr. Thilini Rajapakse of the Department of Psychiatry at University of Peradeniya, conducted a study with patients admitted at two tertiary hospitals in Kandy for treatment of bipolar disorder over a period of six months.
A total of 148 patients were included in the study, of which 74 had a family history of bipolar disorder and the other 74 did not have a family history of bipolar disorder. All 148 patients were assessed for risk of violence at the time of admission and at weekly intervals after that, using the Historical, Clinical, Risk Management Scale-20 (HCR-20) as assessed by a researcher who was unaware of the family history status of the patients.
The assessment showed that participants with a positive family history of bipolar disorder had significantly higher risk of violence compared to participants with a negative family history.
“The findings will be helpful in better allocation of resources in hospital wards as patients who are more likely to be violent can be identified at the time of admission and nursing and other care can be arranged for,” Chandradasa said.
However, significantly higher rates of unemployment, harmful use of alcohol and absence of confiding relationships were also found in participants with a positive family history. Therefore it could not be established whether the high rate of violence among patients with family history was associated with genetic factors or other causes like alcohol abuse.
“Although we planned to conduct the study as a cohort, we could not continue the cohort as patients did not come for follow up after they were discharged, a behavior seen among many patients in developing countries,” said Chandradasa. “We plan to conduct community-based research on the same topic so that we will have a clearer understanding as hospital-based research has many limitations.”
The article can be found at: Chandradasa et al. (2017) Association of Family History of Bipolar Disorder with Risk of Violence in Inpatient Mania: A Cohort Study.
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Source: International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications; Photo: Shutterstock.
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