Impact of metabolic syndrome and clinical features on functioning in patients with bipolar disorder: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective: The metabolic syndrome (MS) is highly prevalent among patients with bipolar disorder (BD), and may affect progression, functioning, and comorbid conditions in BD. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of clinical variables and MS on overall functioning and specific areas of functioning in patients with BD. Methods: A total of 210 participants (140 participants with BD I and BD II in remission and 70 nonpsychiatric control subjects) were included. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to investigate potential correlations of comorbid MS with clinical variables and level of functioning. Results: Level of functioning did not differ between patients with and without MS. However, there were significant correlations between the level of functioning subscales and the number of depressive episodes (p = 0.033), level of general functioning (p = 0.012), duration of illness (p = 0.012), BDS (p = 0.005), BDRS (p = 0.021), BAS total scores (p = 0.021), number of hypomanic episodes (p = 0.022), number of hospitalizations (p = 0.003), employment status (p = 0.032), and diagnosis of BD I (p = 0.007) and BD II (p = 0.044). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that clinical variables had a greater effect on functioning than MS in BD patients.

A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Metabolic Syndrome Prevalence in Chinese Inpatients with Bipolar Disorder

“…Because MetS has a negative impact on the cognitive function in patients with BD, it may also affect the times of hospitalizations and therapeutic effect for bipolar disorder. More patients have depressive symptoms and therefore treatment of non-compliance in patients with BD comorbidity with MetS [13,14]. These reasons urge us to understand the comorbidity prevalence of MetS in BD.…”