Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Since there is a worldwide steady increase in the number of individuals living longer and an expected increase in the number of older adults who will be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, there is a growing need to better understand late-life mania. We provide in this review a report of published studies focusing on the prevalence of late-life mania in the community and in senior psychiatric care facilities.
METHODS: We conducted a search of PubMed and Psychinfo databases using combinations of the keywords bipolar, manic/a, manic depression, elderly, and older including English-language reports presenting quantitative data on the prevalence of mania in adults over the age of 50 years.
RESULTS: Eighteen out of 188 potentially eligible studies met our inclusion criteria, with most studies focusing on psychiatric inpatient samples. The overall prevalence of late-life mania was estimated to be 6.0% in the reported 1,519 older psychiatric inpatients. In elderly inpatients with bipolar disorder, the mean prevalence of late-onset mania was 44.2%. For other relevant care facilities, no firm conclusions could be drawn.
CONCLUSIONS: Late-life mania is not rare in older psychiatric inpatients and late-onset mania is associated with increased somatic comorbidity in patients aged 50 years and older. Several hypotheses regarding the relationship between somatic illness and late-life mania in the elderly have been proposed and studies on this relationship and the prevalence of late-life mania in different senior psychiatric care facilities deserve specific attention in future research projects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 113-8 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Bipolar Disorders |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Mar 2014 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Aged
- Aged, 80 and over
- Aging
- Bipolar Disorder/epidemiology
- Databases, Factual/statistics & numerical data
- Humans
- Prevalence