Summarize each component of the study (e.g., provide a single paragraph overview of the study) - Research Paper Example

Article Summary In the elderly people, bipolar disorder is linked with considerable morbidity as well as disproportionate use of psychiatric services offered in both the inpatient and the outpatient style. Mania is commonly associated with relapse and readmission after the patient has been hospitalized once. There is not sufficient literature regarding the factors that can lead to relapse and readmission in the elderly patients of bipolar disorder who either have an early onset or the late onset.

Various criteria that include but are not limited to the age of patients of bipolar disorder at the time of first hospitalization, their age when the symptoms causing impairment showed up for the first time, and their age when they met the diagnostic criteria for the first time complicate the efforts to differentiate between the cases of early and late onset of bipolar disorder in the elderly patients. This research identified factors linked with the hospitalization of elderly manic patients suffering from late and early bipolar disorder.

To accomplish this, the researchers conducted a retrospective chart review survey to retrieve data from consecutive patients more than 65 years of age that had been hospitalized in the Johns Hopkins Hospital for five years. Mean age of the research participants was 69.4 years whereas they had 10.1 years of education at the mean level. No differences were noted by the researchers among the patients with the early and late-onset of bipolar disorder in terms of their age when they had gone for the index admission.

The researchers compared the factors precipitating index admission of the patients with bipolar disorder’s early onset i.e. disease at lesser than 45 years of age with that of the patients with bipolar disorder’s late onset i.e. disease at more than 45 years of age. The researchers found consistency of the age distribution of bipolar disorder’s onset with a bimodal pattern at the age of 45 years as the cut-point. The researchers found more prevalence of aggression and threatening among the patients with early onset of bipolar disorder before admission into the hospital in contrast to the patients with late onset of bipolar disorder.

Early-onset patients’ likelihood to be taken to the emergency room for evaluation was also more than their counterparts. The researchers also found lesser tendency in the early-onset patients to adhere to the psychiatric medication that they were prescribed by the doctors at the hospital than the late-onset patients. After conducting a comprehensive study, the researchers reached the conclusion that elderly manic patients of both types i.e. those with the early-onset of bipolar disorder and those with the late-onset of bipolar disorders commonly experienced relapse and rehospitalization.

There is need to introduce strategies that can enhance the patients’ adherence to the medication so that recurring hospitalization of patients with early- or late-onset of bipolar disorder can be avoided. One limitation of the research was the limitation of the data in the capacity of a retrospective chart review to the inpatient record. Another limitation was that research was entirely based on the inpatients, so the findings cannot be generalized for elderly patients that are not hospitalized and who suffer from milder forms of bipolar disorder.

References:Lehmann, S. W., and Rabins, P. V. (2006). Factors related to hospitalization in elderly manic patients with early and late-onset bipolar disorder. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 21: 1060-1064. DOI: 10.1002/gps.1607.