The incidence and relative risk of stroke among patients with bipolar disorder: a seven-year follow-up study.

• Main Authors: Hung-Chi Wu, Frank Huang-Chih Chou, Kuan-Yi Tsai, Chao-Yueh Su, Shih-Pei Shen, Tieh-Chi Chung
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2013-01-01
• Series: PLoS ONE
• Online Access: http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC3758282?pdf=render

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to estimate the incidence and relative risk of stroke and post-stroke all-cause mortality among patients with bipolar disorder. METHODS: This study identified a study population from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) between 1999 and 2003 that included 16,821 patients with bipolar disorder and 67,284 age- and sex-matched control participants without bipolar disorder. The participants who had experienced a stroke between 1999 and 2003 were excluded and were randomly selected from the NHIRD. The incidence of stroke (ICD-9-CM code 430-438) and patient survival after stroke were calculated for both groups using data from the NIHRD between 2004 and 2010. A Cox proportional-hazards model was used to compare the seven-year stroke-free survival rate and all-cause mortality rate across the two cohorts after adjusting for confounding risk factors. RESULTS: A total of 472 (2.81%) patients with bipolar disorder and 1,443 (2.14%) controls had strokes over seven years. Patients with bipolar disorder were 1.24 times more likely to have a stroke (95% CI = 1.12-1.38; p<0.0001) after adjusting for demographic characteristics and comorbid medical conditions. In addition, 513 (26.8%) patients who had a stroke died during the follow-up period. The all-cause mortality hazard ratio for patients with bipolar disorder was 1.28 (95% CI = 1.06-1.55; p = 0.012) after adjusting for patient, physician and hospital variables. CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of developing a stroke was greater among patients with bipolar disorder than controls, and the all-cause mortality rate was higher among patients with bipolar disorder than controls during a seven-year follow-up period.