Abstract

Objective: Recent epidemiological studies have shown that lifetime prevalence of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in bipolar patients range from 3.2% to 35%. Meanwhile, few studies have evaluated demographic and clinical features of bipolar disorder (BD) with OCD (BD-OCD) and BD without OCD (pure BD), and the published results of such studies have been controversial. The aim of the current study was to compare the socio-demographic and clinical characteristics of BD patients with and without OCD

Methods: In a cross-sectional, simple convenient hospital-based study, 204 bipolar inpatients diagnosed based on Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) were recruited. Demographic and clinical variables were obtained by using the Yale-Brown obsessive compulsive scale, Bech-Rafaelsen Mania Scale, and Hamilton Depression scale.

Results: Out of 204 patients with BD, 123 (60.3%) patients had pure BD and 81 (39.7%) had BD-OCD. There were significant differences between BD-OCD and pure BD group in terms of education (p=0.036) and marital status (p=0.022). Of clinical features, suicidal thoughts, tendencies, and attempts (p=0.000), frequency of admission (p=0.044), history of substance abuse (p=0.001), family history of OCD (p=0.000), and family history of mood disorder (p=0.036) were significantly different between the groups.

Conclusions: Distinct demographic and clinical characteristics of bipolar patients with OCD comorbidity suggest a specific type of bipolar mood disorder which might need a different diagnostic and therapeutic management. Further longitudinal studies may assist in enhancing our knowledge in this field.

Key words: bipolar disorder, comorbidity, obsessive-compulsive disorder