A Thomson Reuters study found that those with Bipolar Disorder had a greater likelihood of having a wide range of health challenges. This group was compared to those with no personal history of mental illness and no diagnosis of the disorder.
600,000 anonymous insurance claims were analyzed in the study. Employers provided the insurance that these claims came from.
Study results showed that as compared to the control group, those suffering from bipolar disorder had a 3.13 times greater chance of having a bad reaction to medical treatment, such as brain injury or lithium toxicity. In fact, in the 2 year research project, about 7 percent had one bad reaction.
What were some of the health problems those with bipolar were more likely to suffer?
Those with bipolar were 1.68 times more likely to suffer from endocrine or metabolic problems than those without the disorder.
Women had problems with their reproductive systems. In fact woman with bipolar disorder were 25% more likely to have a problem. Problems included breast cancer and dysfunctional uterine bleeding.
Medication treatments may cause side effects. For instance, Lamictal may cause problems with the eyes and possibly result in the need for vision correction. Other drugs can indirectly effect employee productivity if they don’t address the manic depression symptoms well enough and, as a result, other treatments will need to be found for increasing productivity of the employee. Still other drugs may cause anxiety as a side effect so anxiety relief may need to be sought. Plus drug side affects can cause depression rather then treat it. If you Google “depression forum” you will find discussion boards online that have a depression chat where more information can be found about the drugs whose side effects may include depression.
Another main area were neurological problems. One-fourth of those with the disorder were more likely to have one neurological challenge or more. Some of the problems included spinal cord injuries and headaches. These occurred 2.27 times more among the bipolar disorder group in the study.
William D. Marder, Ph.D., is one of the study’s authors. He said, “Medication use and behavioral characteristics are known to increase the risk of disease among bipolar patients, but much is still unknown about the reasons for increased rates of comorbidities among this population and ways to reduce them.”
“Our analysis underscores the urgent need for further exploration of how to best increase providers’ capacity to address, monitor and ultimately improve the psychiatric and physical health of their bipolar patients.”