Recurrences and relapses in bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder can cause extreme mood swings from euphoric recklessness at one extreme to paralysing depression at the other. It can recur throughout people's lives and a team of Swedish researchers tracked a group of bipolar patients over five years after their first admission to hospital in 2000. 60% of the participants had had no readmission but a smaller group (15%) had had 66 readmissions between them. On average the participants were readmitted 1.2 times over the course of the study but those people who had been admitted to hospital for a second time had an average of 1.9 admissions subsequently. Overall three quarters of the hospitalizations were repeat admissions.

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUKTRE54H5T620090518?feedType=RSS&feedName=healthNews