Effects of comorbid personality disorders in bipolar type I disorder patients to disease course

Objective: It was planned to compare bipolar I patients (BP-I) with personality disorder (PD) and without any personality disorder in terms of variables such as disease characteristics, disease course, suicide risk, alcohol and substance use. Methods: This cross-sectional study 99 patients with BP-0I according to DSM-IV TR and gave to informed consent were included. Sociodemographic Data Form, Hamilton Depression Scale, Young Mania Scale, and DSM-IV-TR-SCID-II were administered to participants. Results: At least one PD was detected in 38 (38.4%) patients with BP-I. Histrionic type (18%) PD was the most common in patients. Two types of PD were found in 21.2% and three types of PD were found in 6.1% of the participants. In patients without personality disorder, the mean number of hospitalizations and the total number of manic episodes were high while the total number of depressive episodes was low. The incidence of atypical depression, attempted suicide, and alcohol-substance abuse were statistically higher in patients with multiple PD than non-PD group. Conclusion: BP-I patients with multiple PD have more depressive episodes than non-PD patients; this group of patients should be considered as a special subgroup that should be followed carefully because of the atypical nature of these attacks, more suicide rates and the use of more alcohol and substance. In addition, these patients lower hospitalization times may need to be interpreted in favor of not being able to complete the treatment. For this reason, it may be important to monitor these patients outpatiently.