Relationship of clinical course of illness variables to medical comorbidities in 900 adult outpatients with bipolar disorder

A history of childhood adversity, early age of onset of bipolar disorder, and an anxiety comorbidity were independently related to the number of medical comorbidities that patients experienced as adults. While the nature and mechanisms of this linkage remain to be further explored, the findings indicate the need for greater attention to and treatment of these 3 PPFs in hopes of ameliorating both the adverse course of bipolar illness and the burden of medical comorbidities with which they are associated.