MedWire (6/28, Cowen) reports, “Results from a US study show that more than half of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have a significant burden of comorbid medical illnesses.” The 264-patient study revealed that “medical comorbidity most commonly affected the musculoskeletal/integumentary (33%), the respiratory (27%), and the endocrinologic/metabolic (25%) systems, and the most common individual conditions were migraine (25%), history of head trauma with loss of consciousness (19%), and hypertension (16%).” In addition, investigators “found that 31% (n=87) of patients were overweight, with a body mass index (BMI) of 25.0-29.9 kg/m2, and 38% (n=105) were obese, with a BMI of more than 30.0 kg/m2.” The findings were presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit in Phoenix, Arizona.
Related Links:
— “High medical illness rates in bipolar disorder, “Mark Cowen, MedWire News, June 28, 2012.