The societal costs form patients suffering of bipolar disorder in the Netherlands were high, especially the indirect costs because of absence from work. The quality of life of bipolar patients was lower than the general population.

Introduction Severe sepsis is a dreaded consequence of infection and necessitates intensive care treatment. Severe sepsis has a profound impact on mortality and on hospital costs, but recent incidence data from The Netherlands are not available. The purpose of the present study was to determine the prevalence and incidence of severe sepsis occurring during the first 24 hours of admission in Dutch intensive care units (ICUs). Methods Forty-seven ICUs in The Netherlands participated in a point prevalence survey and included patients with infection at the time of ICU admission. Clinical symptoms of severe sepsis during the first 24 hours of each patient's ICU stay were recorded and the prevalence of severe sepsis was calculated. Then, the annual incidence of severe sepsis in The Netherlands was estimated, based on the prevalence, the estimated length of stay, and the capacity of the participating ICUs relative to the national intensive care capacity. Results The participating ICUs had 442 beds available for admissions, which was estimated to be 42% of the national ICU capacity. At the time of the survey, 455 patients were currently admitted and 151 were included in the analysis; 134 (29.5%) patients met criteria for severe sepsis. The most common failing organ system was the respiratory system (90%), and most patients were admitted following surgery (37%) and were admitted because of acute infection (62%). The most prevalent source of infection was the lung (47%). The estimated duration of ICU stay for severe sepsis patients was 13.3 ± 1.1 days. Conclusion The annual number of admissions for severe sepsis in Dutch ICUs was calculated at 8643 ± 929 cases/year, which is 0.054% of the population, 0.61% of hospital admissions and 11% of ICU admissions.

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In particular olanzapine and also risperidone were selectively prescribed to patients formerly treated with other antipsychotics and to those susceptible for EPS. If not recognised or controlled for, observational studies comparing different antipsychotic drugs may produce biased results on efficacy or frequency of side effects for the different types of antipsychotics.