Personality disorders in patients with newly diagnosed bipolar disorder, their unaffected first-degree relatives and healthy control individuals.
Kimie Stefanie Ormstrup Sletved, Niels Henrik Falck Villemoes, Klara Coello, Sharleny Stanislaus, Hanne Lie Kjærstad, Maria Faurholt-Jepsen, Kamilla Miskowiak, Jens Drachmann Bukh, Maj Vinberg, Lars Vedel Kessing
Author Information
Kimie Stefanie Ormstrup Sletved: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Electronic address: Kimie.stefanie.ormstrup.sletved@regionh.dk.
Niels Henrik Falck Villemoes: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark; University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Klara Coello: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark.
Sharleny Stanislaus: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark.
Hanne Lie Kjærstad: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark.
Maria Faurholt-Jepsen: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark.
Kamilla Miskowiak: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Jens Drachmann Bukh: Psychiatric Center Ballerup, Denmark.
Maj Vinberg: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark; Psychiatric Research Unit, Psychiatric Centre North Zealand, Hillerød, Denmark.
Lars Vedel Kessing: Copenhagen Affective Disorder research Center (CADIC), Psychiatric Center Copenhagen, Denmark; Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
OBJECTIVE: Bipolar disorder (BD) is often a progressive mood disorder with a high prevalence of comorbid personality disorder (PD) ranging from 25 to 73 %. Previous studies have included patients with various illness duration of BD. Longer illness duration may be associated with increased prevalence of comorbid PD. This study investigated the prevalence of comorbid personality disorders in patients with newly diagnosed BD and their unaffected first-degree relatives (UR) compared with healthy control individuals (HC). METHODS: We included 204 patients with newly diagnosed BD, 109 of their UR and 188 HC. To assess comorbid PD according to DSM-IV, the SCID-II-interview was performed in full or partial remission. Subthreshold PD was defined as scores above cut-off in the SCID-II self-report questionnaires. Functioning was assessed using the Functioning Assessment Short Test. RESULTS: In total 52 (25.5 %) of the patients with newly diagnosed BD fulfilled criteria for a comorbid PD. Regarding UR, 7 (6.4 %) fulfilled the criteria for a PD. Subthreshold PD were more prevalent in BD (82.8 %) and UR (53.0 %) than in HC (35.1 %), p-values < 0.003). Patients with comorbid PD presented with impaired functioning compared with patients without PD. LIMITATIONS: Clinical diagnostic distinction between PD and BD is challenged by overlapping symptoms. CONCLUSION: A quarter of patients with newly diagnosed BD fulfill criteria for a comorbid PD, already at the time of the diagnosis with BD. A comorbid PD is associated with larger functional impairments. This emphasizes the need for early assessment of comorbid PD at time of BD diagnosis.
