Clinical Characteristics and Psychotropic Drug Prescription Patterns of Bipolar Disorder Patients with a History of Suicidal Attempts: Findings from the REAP-BD, Korea
- Author:
Seon Cheol PARK
1
;
Kiwon KIM
;
Ok Jin JANG
;
Seung Gon KIM
;
Jung Goo LEE
;
Joon Hyuk PARK
;
Joonho CHOI
;
Dong Woo LEE
;
Shih Ku LIN
;
Chay Hoon TAN
;
Naotaka SHINFUKU
;
Yong Chon PARK
Author Information
- Publication Type:Brief Communication
- Keywords: Antidepressant; Bipolar disorder; Depressive episode; Hemoglobin; Suicide attempt
- MeSH: Anti-Anxiety Agents; Antidepressive Agents; Asian Continental Ancestry Group; Bipolar Disorder; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology); Depression; Drug Prescriptions; Humans; Hypnotics and Sedatives; Korea; Outpatients; Prescriptions; Suicide
- From:Psychiatry Investigation 2019;16(6):459-463
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
- Abstract: Our study aimed to analyze the clinical characteristics and psychotropic prescription patterns of a history of suicide attempts in South Koreans with bipolar disorder (BD), by using only Korean data from the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Pattern for Bipolar disorder. The patterns of clinical characteristics and psychotropic drug use were compared among 53 patients with a history of suicide attempts and 297 without this history; the potential effects of confounding variables were adjusted with binary logistic analyses for discrete variables and analyses of covariance for continuous variables. After adjusting the effects of age, sex, duration of illness, and enrollment as an outpatient, patients with a history of suicide attempts were characterized by a significantly more prevalent depressive episode, lower prevalent remission state, lower levels of hemoglobin, and more use of antidepressants, anxiolytics, and hypnotics compared to those without lifetime suicide attempt. The inability to plan goal-directed behavior may be an intervening factor in the relationship between suicide attempts and depression in BD. Relatively low hemoglobin levels can be associated with manic episodes in patients with a history of suicide attempts and the use of antidepressants, anxiolytics, or hypnotics can be associated with suicide attempts in BD patients.
