Sociodemographic and clinical variables in suicidal and non-suicidal bipolar patients.

Introduction: Most patients with bipolar disorder also exhibit suicidal behaviour. Early onset of illness and male preponderance have been noted in Indian population. There was no recent literature with regard to socio-demographic and clinical variables among suicidal behaviour in Indian population except a few earlier ones. This study was undertaken to find out the relationship of socio-demographic and clinical variables with suicidal behaviour in patients with bipolar disorder. Method: 60 bipolar disorder patients in remission coming to the Central Institute of Psychiatry diagnosed as per DSM IV-TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000) criteria, 30 with suicidal ideation and 30 without suicidal ideation were taken in the study. Their sociodemographic and clinical data were collected. Results: The mean age of onset of the illness in the suicidal group (19.10±5.27 years) was significantly less than the mean age of onset of the illness in the non-suicidal group (23.33±7.56 years). Females were found to have higher BSI scores (mean = 8.20±8.88) than males (mean = 3.40±2.01). Most of the patients had a history of prior hospitalization and most of them had a manic episode as the most recent episode. Females were found to have higher BSI scores (mean = 8.20±8.88) than males (mean = 3.40±2.01). Positive history of prior hospitalization (mean=4.29±4.30) was associated with lower BSI scores as compared to higher scores of that without a positive history (mean=11.33±12.74). Conclusions: Suicidal patients had earlier age of onset of illness than non suicidal patients. Females were found to have higher suicidal ideation than males. Hospitalization can reduce the suicidal ideation in patients.