The Serum Uric Acid Level of Bipolar Depression: A Retrospective Real-World Study

Abstract

Objective The aim of this study was to evaluate whether serum uric acid can be used as a biomarker to identify bipolar disorder (BD) from unipolar depression (UD). Methods We reviewed the medical records of 18-65-year-old depressive patients hospitalized in the first hospital of Shanxi Medical University from October 2015 to October 2020. The main discharge diagnosis of these patients was recurrent depressive disorder(RDD) or BD. The data of gender, age, education level, drug use and serum uric acid level were extracted. The differences of uric acid levels between the two groups at admission and discharge were compared. Results The uric acid level of BD decreased after treatment, the uric acid level of BD group was significantly higher than that of UD group at baseline (P=0.02) and after treatment (P=0.025). Conclusion UA may be a potential biomarker to distinguish BD from UD.