Quality of Life among Patients with Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Bipolar disorder is a common, chronic and lifelong disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of mania or hypomania and depression which causes grave and debilitating consequences for its sufferers. Bipolar disorder can be challenging to diagnose and manage. It is often assumed to be recurrent major depression, until an episode of mania/hypomania occurs and the diagnosis of bipolar disorder is confirmed. Bipolar disorder is characterized by extreme mood swings – from hopeless depression to euphoric or irritable mania – with each episode usually bookended by symptom free periods referred to as euthymia. WHO ranks bipolar disorder collectively as the 6th most common moderately to severely disabling condition in the world for any age group. It has been associated with direct costs such as the costs of hospitalization and medications, and indirect costs such as productivity loss, and burden on family and care givers. The disease produces a range of unpleasant and debilitating symptoms, which can have a profound impact including disrupting activities of daily living, employment, income, relationships, social and leisure activities, and life goals, which are known to influence quality of life. BD patients have markedly lower quality of life than the general population. Thus, adjusting to the illness is therefore particularly challenging, given the evidence that psychoeducation (psychosocial nursing intervention) is a structured intervention focused on achieving improvement in mental health and psychosocial aspects of chronic health conditions. Aim of the study: The aim of this study was to assess the effect of quality of life among patients with bipolar disorder. Subject and setting: The study was conducted in the outpatient clinic of the Institute of Psychiatry at Ain Shams University. A descriptive explorative study design was used to accomplish the aim of the study. The subjects were 100 cases of BD who met the following criteria during the study period: age between 18 and 50 years old, from both sexes, all education levels, had a definite diagnosis of BD "of any type" , agreed to participate in the study, free from any psychiatric disorders except bipolar disorder, and had no medical disorders. Data collection tools: Data were collected using interviewing questionnaire containing the following parts: socio-demographic sheet, detailed history of illness, and drug attitude inventory (DAI-30). As well as, using World Health Organization Quality of Life – BREF questionnaire (WHOQOL- BREF, 26 items), it provides a quality of life measure to BD. Fieldwork: A pilot study was carried out on 10 cases. The fieldwork lasted from the beginning of November 2015 to the mid of April 2016.