A 2-year follow-up study of discharged psychiatric patients with bipolar disorder

This study investigated medication compliance, disease recurrence and the recovery of social function in discharged psychiatric patients with bipolar disorder. A 2-year follow-up was conducted on all patients with bipolar disorder, who were hospitalized in our psychiatric department between June 2010 and May 2011. Risk factors for recurrence were analyzed based on a self-designed questionnaire. Of the 252 patients in the study, 210 had complete information (83.3%) for the 2-year follow-up: 170 cases of bipolar I disorder and 40 cases of bipolar II disorder. The 1-year and 2-year full-compliance rates were 41.0% and 35.7%, respectively. The 1-year and 2-year recurrence rates were 42.4% and 61.0%, respectively. Statistically significant differences in rates were found between the bipolar subtypes for 1-year full compliance, 1-year non-compliance, 2-year recurrence, and 2-year readmission. Logistic regression identified different sets of independent variables that were risk factors for recurrence, and protective factors for recurrence at 1 year and 2 years after hospital discharge. The results of the follow-up indicated that the situation of patients with bipolar disorder after discharge is not optimistic, because of high recurrence rates, high non-compliance rates and low recovery rates. Clinical and social experts should pay more attention to the situation.