Bipolar disorder motivates 2600 admissions per year in Portugal
AN Bipolar disorder is responsible for 2600 hospitalizations per year, on average, in Portugal and every day there are seven hospitalizations, on average, in national public hospitals, due to this mental illness, a research revealed today.
Carried out by researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto (FMUP) and CINTESIS – Center for Research in Health Technologies and Services, this is “the first national study to quantify admissions for bipolar disorder and the number of hospitalized patients Portuguese publics, using the ‘BigData'”, explains, in a statement, Manuel Gonçalves Pinho, Psychiatry doctor and first author of this work.
According to the researcher from FMUP / CINTESIS, hospitalizations are one of the main indicators of health care provided to these patients, similarly to what happens in schizophrenia. This research work registered 20 807 hospitalizations related to bipolar disorder over eight years (2008-2015), corresponding to 13 330 patients.
As for the costs, the researchers did the math and concluded that each admission had an estimated price of 3,508 euros, which totals 9.1 million euros per year and 73 million euros in the considered period of time. One of the explanations for the value found is the length of stay, which was, on average, 19 days for women and 16 days for men.
“Bipolar disorder is a chronic mental illness, the periods when the illness decompensates often lead to hospitalizations. These should be the last resort for treating a bipolar disorder”, physician Manuel Gonçalves Pinho.
According to this national study, published in the scientific journal Psychiatric Quarterly, hospitalizations for bipolar disorder are more frequent in women, with an average age of 49 years. About 44% of admissions occurred due to manic episodes, especially among men, as opposed to depressive or mixed episodes.
“Manic episodes usually present with periods of increased energy, irritable or euphoric mood and decreased sleep. These symptoms last several weeks to months. The mood changes that characterize the disease can be classified as manic / hypomanic episodes and episodes of depression bipolar “, explain the authors of the study.
In addition to Manuel Gonçalves Pinho, researchers Alberto Freitas, from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto and CINTESIS, and Orlando von Doellinger and João Pedro Ribeiro, from the Centro Hospitalar do Tâmega e Sousa, in Penafiel, also participated in this work.
Also read: The doctor explains: Bipolar illness, between depression and euphoria. Understand