Hospitalisation for Bipolar Disorder: Comparison between Young and Elderly Patients

Abstract

Although Bipolar Disorder (BD) often affects young subjects, the number of elderly patients suffering from BD is rising as life expectancy increases. Few studies addressed the hospitalisation characteristics according to patient age. The goal of this preliminary study was to compare the hospitalisation characteristics of young and elderly patients suffering from BD admitted in a psychiatric hospital. The data were selected from the French nation-wide hospital database for psychiatry. The study included patients hospitalised in a French psychiatric hospital from January 2002 to December 2012. The hospitalisation characteristics were compared between young (YBD) and elderly bipolar patients (EBD). A total of 1842 patients were hospitalised during the 11-year period. Among them, 707 (38.4%) were 60 years old and over. The mean length of stay was significantly longer for the EBD group than for the YBD group (48.1 vs 30.4 days, p < 0.0001). Among the patients first hospitalised in 2002, the readmission rate was significantly higher for the EBD (67.9%) than for the YBD (55.2%) group (p = 0.026). In contrast, the rate of compulsory hospitalisations was higher among the YBD than among the EBD group. Our findings confirm that BD in old age remains a severe disease requiring longer hospitalisations than for BD in younger patients. Future prospective studies are needed to better understand the origin of these differences.