Quality of Life in Patients of Bipolar Disorder under Remission in Relation to Clinical Variables and Psychosocial Factors
S. GunamaniBackground: Assessing the quality of life in of bipolar disorder remitted patients isrequired to devise suitable therapy for further improvement. That is why this study was conducted. Materials and Methods: One hundred and fifty patients and control were selected free from comorbid conditions. Cross sectional study design was used. Semi structured proforma, General health questionnaire, HAM-D, YMRS, WHO-QOL-Bref scale, PSLES, Daily Hassles scale and MSPSS were used. Results: There mean age was 46.5 and 32.5 years for male and female patients respectively. The socio-demographic data showed males were 62%, married 64% ,82% BPD were from joint family and 54% had 10th standard education with low income. The duration of illness was 11.9 in males and 10.1 years in females, while the age of onset of illness showed a significant difference of 26.9 and 22.8 years in males and females respectively. No difference was observed in number of episodes and life events scores between males and females. No gender variation in Hassles scale and YMRS score in BPD patients. There was a significant low score of 1.9 for females and 2.8 for males were recorded. In WHOQOL-Bref scale score, males and females differed significantly and the per cent reduction was 40,50,35 and 33 for the males and 50,61, 40 and 37 for females in physical, psychological, social and environmental domains. Regarding MSPSS score, females (24.2) had significantly less support than males (28.2). Hassles and HAM-D scores had significant negative correlation on all the four domains of QOL. Conclusion: The QOL of BPD patients still low and they may require additional therapy and support.