Background: The existing evidence about the clinical situations of the bipolar patients with opioid dependence is scarce. The present study was carried out to compare the clinical features and course of the bipolar disorder type I regarding the two subgroups of opioid dependent and non-dependent.
Methods: There were 178 adult patients with bipolar disorder type I consecutively referred to the Iran Hospital of Psychiatry, Tehran, Iran, from January 2008 to January 2009 who enrolled in the study. The Persian Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders (SCID-I), HDRS-17, and Y-MRS were administered for all patients. Other clinical information was gathered through the face-to-face interviews with the probands and the hospital records. The T test, Chi square test and logistic regression were used to analyze the data.
Results: The mean age of probands were 33.6 ± 11.1 years old and they were mostly male. Among the evaluated indices, the factors gender, anxiety disorders comorbidity, non-adherence, and positive family history were different significantly and independently from the other studied factors between opioid dependent and non-dependent bipolar patients.
Conclusions: Despite some differences, the opioid dependent and non-dependent bipolar patients did not have any significant difference regarding most of the examined clinical and course indices.
Keywords: Bipolar Disorder; Opioid; Outcome; Substance Abuse; Substance Dependence.