Hello. I'm Stephen M. Strakowski, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin. Thank you all for tuning in to this webcast. I really do appreciate those of you who watch these webcasts regularly and send in comments. Please continue to do so.
Today I want to talk about bipolar disorder in the elderly—probably more technically correct, mania in the elderly. There have been a couple of recent papers to address this topic, which is an area we really don't know enough about. One of these papers is by Martha Sajatovic, MD, at Case Western; it was published in the journal Bipolar Disorders.[1] The other is by Tamar Katz, MD, at McLean Hospital, and it appeared in Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry.[2] Both are useful resources.
As I've talked about in another webcast, bipolar disorder is typically an illness of young people. The mean age of onset is usually in the late teens to perhaps early 20s, and it's fairly unusual for it to occur after about age 35. In the recent STEP-BD program, two thirds of cases started by age 18.[3]There is a high rate of suicide in these young people, making bipolar one of the more lethal of psychiatric disorders.
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COMMENTARY
Managing Bipolar Disorder in the Elderly
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD
DisclosuresAugust 16, 2017
Hello. I'm Stephen M. Strakowski, chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the new Dell Medical School at the University of Texas in Austin. Thank you all for tuning in to this webcast. I really do appreciate those of you who watch these webcasts regularly and send in comments. Please continue to do so.
Today I want to talk about bipolar disorder in the elderly—probably more technically correct, mania in the elderly. There have been a couple of recent papers to address this topic, which is an area we really don't know enough about. One of these papers is by Martha Sajatovic, MD, at Case Western; it was published in the journal Bipolar Disorders.[1] The other is by Tamar Katz, MD, at McLean Hospital, and it appeared in Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry.[2] Both are useful resources.
As I've talked about in another webcast, bipolar disorder is typically an illness of young people. The mean age of onset is usually in the late teens to perhaps early 20s, and it's fairly unusual for it to occur after about age 35. In the recent STEP-BD program, two thirds of cases started by age 18.[3]There is a high rate of suicide in these young people, making bipolar one of the more lethal of psychiatric disorders.
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Any views expressed above are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of WebMD or Medscape.
Cite this: Managing Bipolar Disorder in the Elderly - Medscape - Aug 16, 2017.
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Authors and Disclosures
Authors and Disclosures
Author
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Psychology, and Biomedical Engineering, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; Senior Vice President, Strategy and Transformation, University of Cincinnati Health, Cincinnati, Ohio
Disclosure: Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
Serve(d) as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion
Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion; Oxford University Press