Recovery from episodes during the course of affective disorder: a case-register study.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to investigate whether the duration of treated episodes changes during the course of unipolar and bipolar affective disorder.

METHOD

The rate of recovery from successive hospitalized episodes was estimated with survival analyses in a case-register study including all hospital admissions with primary affective disorder in Denmark during the period 1971-1993.

RESULTS

A total of 9174 patients with recurrent episodes were followed from their first admission. The rate of recovery from hospitalized episodes did not change with the number of episodes in unipolar or bipolar disorder. Furthermore, the rate of recovery was constant across episodes, regardless of the combination of age, gender and type of disorder. Initially in the course of the illness, the rate was a little faster for bipolar than for unipolar patients, but later in the course of the illness the rate of recovery was the same for the two disorders.

CONCLUSION

It is concluded that, in modern treatment settings, the duration of affective episodes appears to be stable during the course of unipolar and bipolar disorder.