The association between meal timing and frequency with cardiometabolic profile in patients with bipolar disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to explore the association of timing of and frequency of meals with markers of cardiometabolic risk in patients with bipolar disorder in out-patient maintenance treatment. METHODS: We used Pittsburgh Sleep Diary and actigraphy measures for individuals with bipolar I disorder. Linear and logistic regression analyses were used to determine whether dinnertime, instability of dinnertime, and/or interval between meals were associated with metabolic syndrome and its components. RESULTS: Later dinnertime was associated with greater waist circumference (ß = 0.25, P = 0.02) after adjusting for age, sex, dinner-to-bed interval, and sleep duration. Longer breakfast-to-lunch intervals were also associated with greater waist circumferences (ß =-.35, P = .002) after adjusting for age, sex, and sleep duration. Neither instability of dinnertime nor number of meals per day was associated with the metabolic syndrome or its components. CONCLUSION: Weight gain is often perceived as inevitable side-effect of medications. While patients often need to be on medication to function, a more careful lifestyle assessment with attention to social rhythms and timing of activities may be critical not only for mood stability, but also to reduce cardiovascular risk.

Sleep duration is associated with dyslipidemia in patients with bipolar disorder in clinical remission.

BACKGROUND: The pathways to increased cardiovascular risk in bipolar disorder include health behaviors, psychosocial stress and long-term medication exposure. However, the evidence that the association between cardiovascular risk factors and bipolar disorder remains significant after controlling for these co-factors suggests that additional important risk factors have yet to be identified. Our hypothesis is that disturbances in the sleep-wake cycle are an important and under-recognized pathway through which affective disorders lead to increased cardiovascular risk. METHODS: In patients with bipolar disorder type 1 in clinical remission, we: 1) explored whether sleep disturbance predicted the endorsement of NCEP ATP-III criteria for dyslipidemia, independent of other lifestyle factors and 2) tested the association between low HDL (NCEP-ATP III) and sleep duration measured with actigraphy over an eight-day period. RESULTS: Median sleep duration is significantly associated with low HDL. The risk of having low HDL increases by 1.23 with every 30 minutes of reduced sleep time. LIMITATIONS: Since sleep patterns in patients with bipolar disorder are variable and irregular, it is possible that other sleep characteristics, not present during the span of our study, or the variability itself may be what drives the increased cardiovascular risk. CONCLUSIONS: Sleep characteristics of patients with bipolar disorder in clinical remission are associated with cardiovascular risk. More specifically, sleep duration was associated with low HDL. Clinicians should pay special attention to sleep hygiene in treating individuals with bipolar disorder, even when they are in clinical remission.