Lifetime eating disorder comorbidity associated with delayed depressive recovery in bipolar disorder

Balzafiore et al. Int J Bipolar Disord (2017) 5:25 DOI 10.1186/s40345-017-0094-4 Open Access RESEARCH Lifetime eating disorder comorbidity associated with delayed depressive recovery in bipolar disorder Danielle R. Balzafiore1,2, Natalie L. Rasgon1, Laura D. Yuen1, Saloni Shah1, Hyun Kim3, Kathryn C. Goffin1, Shefali Miller1, Po W. Wang1 and Terence A. Ketter1* Abstract Background: Although eating disorders (EDs) are common in bipolar disorder (BD), little is known regarding their longitudinal consequences. We assessed prevalence, clinical correlates, and longitudinal depressive severity in BD patients with vs. without EDs. Methods: Outpatients referred to Stanford University BD Clinic during 2000–2011 were assessed with the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for BD (STEP-BD) affective disorders evaluation, and while receiving naturalistic treatment for up to 2 years, were monitored with the STEP-BD clinical monitoring form. Patients with vs. without lifetime EDs were compared with respect to prevalence, demographic and unfavorable illness characteristics/current mood symptoms and psychotropic use, and longitudinal depressive severity. Results: Among 503 BD outpatients, 76 (15.1%) had lifetime EDs, which were associated with female gender, and higher rates of lifetime comorbid anxiety, alcohol/substance use, and personality disorders, childhood BD onset, episode accumulation (≥10 prior mood episodes), prior suicide attempt, current syndromal/subsyndromal depression, sadness, anxiety, and antidepressant use, and earlier BD onset age, and greater current overall BD severity. Among currently depressed patients, 29 with compared to 124 without lifetime EDs had significantly delayed depressive recovery. In contrast, among currently recovered (euthymic ≥8 weeks) patients, 10 with compared to 95 without lifetime EDs had only non-significantly hastened depressive recurrence. Limitations: Primarily Caucasian, insured, suburban, American specialty clinic-referred sample limits generalizability. Small number of recovered patients with EDs limited statistical power to detect relationships between EDs and depressive recurrence. Conclusions: Further studies are warranted to explore the degree to which EDs impact longitudinal depressive illness burden in BD. Keywords: Bipolar disorders, Eating disorders, Comorbidity, Characteristics, Recovery, Recurrence Background High rates of co-occurrence of bipolar disorder (BD) and eating disorders (EDs) are well documented (Jen et al. 2013; McElroy et al. 2011, 2013, 2016; Wildes et al. *Correspondence: 1 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, 401 Quarry Road, Room 2124, Stanford, CA 94305‑5723, USA Full list of author information is available at the end of the article 2008). EDs are more prevalent among females compared to males with BD (Jen et al. 2013; McElroy et al. 2011, 2016; Seixas et al. 2012) and have been associated with more challenging bipolar course, including earlier onset age (Brietzke et al. 2011; Jen et al. 2013; Lunde et al. 2009; McElroy et al. 2011, 2016), more depressive and mood episodes (Brietzke et al. 2011; Lunde et al. 2009; McElroy et al. 2011), rapid cycling (Fornaro et al. 2010; McElroy et al. 2011, 2016), depressive symptoms (Jen © The Author(s) 2017. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. Balzafiore et al. Int J Bipolar Disord (2017) 5:25 et al. 2013; Seixas et al. 2012; Wildes et al. 2007, 2008), suicide attempts (Brietzke et al. 2011; McElroy et al. 2011, 2013, 2016), weight disturbance (McElroy et al. 2011, 2013, 2016; Wildes et al. 2007, 2008), and psychiatric comorbidities (Seixas et al. 2012), including lifetime anxiety (Brietzke et al. 2011; Jen et al. 2013; McElroy et al. 2013, 2016) and alcohol/substance use disorders (Brietzke et al. 2011; Fornaro et al. 2010; Jen et al. 2013; McElroy et al. 2013). Although EDs, considered cross-sectionally, have been associated with higher rates of multiple unfavorable BD illness characteristics, the longitudinal consequences of comorbid EDs in BD remain to be definitively established. In the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for BD (STEP-BD), one of the largest prospective naturalistic studies to examine longitudinal outcome in BD patients, lifetime comorbid EDs appeared to increase the risk for depressive recurrence (Perlis et al. 2006). Similarly, in unipolar depression comorbid EDs appeared to increase risks of depressive recurrence and poor antidepressant response (Jang et al. 2013; Mischoulon et al. 2011). In contrast, data are lacking regarding whether or not a lifetime history of ED affects time to recovery from mood episodes. Clearly, additional research is needed to ascertain the influence of lifetime comorbid EDs on BD illness longitudinal outcome. Enhanced understanding of how BD course is influenced by lifetime comorbid EDs is imperative to permit early identification of patients at risk for poor outcomes and could lead to improved treatment for patients with comorbid EDs. Therefore, among BD outpatients, we assessed the prevalence of lifetime EDs and relationships between lifetime EDs and demographics, baseline illness characteristics/current mood states/current mood symptoms/current psychotropic use, and longitudinal depressive outcomes. Methods We included outpatients with bipolar I disorder or bipolar II disorder referred by community practitioners (primarily psychiatrists) to the Stanford University Bipolar Disorder Clinic between 2000 and 2011. Patients were assessed with the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) affective disorders evaluation (ADE) (Sachs et al. 2003), which included the structured clinical interview for the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 4th edition (SCID-IV) (First et al. 1996) mood disorders module, as well as the anxiety/eating disorder subtype screening questions from the mini international neuropsychiatric interview (MINI) (Sheehan et al. 1998), and clinical global impression for bipolar disorderoverall severity (CGI-BP-OS) score (Spearing et al. 1997). Page 2 of 9 Bipolar and comorbid (including anxiety/eating disorder subtype) Axis I psychiatric disorder diagnoses were determined by clinician consensus of results of the ADE and MINI (which was administered by trained research staff and assessed EDs and subtypes) as well as available medical records. Axis II psychiatric disorder diagnoses were determined by unstructured clinician DSM-IV assessment as well as assessing available medical records. Due to limited numbers, patients with lifetime EDs (...truncated)