MedWire News: Patients with bipolar disorder are significantly more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder than other people, results of a US study show.

The researchers say that doctors should screen their bipolar patients for post-traumatic stress disorder as the condition can significantly reduce a patient's ability to function in social situations.

Dr Yuval Neria, from Columbia University Medical Center in New York, and team studied 977 adult patients who were attending a general medicine practice in the city.

All the patients were assessed for mood disorders and completed questionnaires on previous traumatic experiences, such as the death of a loved one and physical or sexual assaults. The researchers also used diagnostic tests to assess each participant for the presence of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The researchers found that 96 of the patients had bipolar disorder.

Compared with the other patients, those with bipolar disorder were 2.6 times more likely to report a history of physical or sexual assault and nearly three times more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder.

The team also found that bipolar disorder patients with post-traumatic stress disorder had significantly worse social functioning than their counterparts without the condition.

The findings remained true after accounting for ethnicity, gender, marital status, country of birth, education level and income.

Writing in the journal Bipolar Disorders, Dr Neria and team say: "The frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder among patients with bipolar disorder appears to be common and clinically significant."

They add: "This combination of mental disorders is associated with clinically significant symptoms and functional impairment.

"Timely provision of clinical interventions to patients with bipolar disorder who have been exposed to trauma and manifest with post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms may help to prevent long-term, persistent morbidity [poor health]."