Quality of Life in Unipolar and Bipolar Depression: Are There Significant Differences?

• Published in: The journal of nervous and mental disease Vol. 192; no. 11; pp. 792 - 795
• Main Authors: Berlim, Marcelo T, Pargendler, Joana, Caldieraro, Marco A, Almeida, Ellen A, Fleck, Marcelo P. A, Joiner, Thomas E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hagerstown, MD Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc 01-11-2004; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Ovid Technologies
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Aged; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar disorder; Bipolar Disorder - diagnosis; Bipolar Disorder - psychology; Bipolar disorders; Depression; Depressive Disorder - diagnosis; Depressive Disorder - psychology; Female; Health Status; Humans; Illnesses; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mood disorders; Outpatient care facilities; Personality Inventory; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Quality of Life; Surveys and Questionnaires; Mood disorder; Human; Depression; Bipolar disorder; Comparative study; Quality of life
• ISSN: 0022-3018; 1539-736X
• DOI: 10.1097/01.nmd.0000144700.97769.06

In the present investigation, we compared the impact of illness on quality of life (QOL) in adult outpatients with unipolar (N = 89) and bipolar (N = 25) depression. While attending a university hospital in southern Brazil, patients completed the WHOʼs QOL Instrument-Short Version and the Beck Depression Inventory. After analyses, patients with bipolar depression reported significantly lower scores on the psychological QOL domain (p = .013) than patients with unipolar depression. There were no significant differences between the study groups in terms of social and demographic variables, in the other QOL domains assessed (i.e., physical health, social relationships, and environmental), and in the severity of depressive symptoms. In conclusion, our findings suggest that patients with bipolar and unipolar depressions have different QOL profiles, and that this difference is probably independent of the severity of the mood disturbance and might be related to the higher rates of suicide observed in the bipolar population.