Clinical characteristics of unipolar disorder and bipolar disorder according to the lifetime presence of recurrent panic attacks

  1. Liz Forty1,2,
  2. Daniel Smith1,
  3. Lisa Jones2,
  4. Ian Jones1,2,
  5. Sian Caesar2,
  6. Carly Cooper2,
  7. Christine Fraser1,
  8. Katherine Gordon-Smith1,2,
  9. Sally Hyde2,
  10. Anne Farmer3,
  11. Peter McGuffin3,
  12. Nick Craddock1,2

Article first published online: 14 APR 2009

DOI: 10.1111/j.1399-5618.2009.00676.x

Issue

Bipolar Disorders

Bipolar Disorders

Volume 11, Issue 3, pages 307–315, May 2009

Additional Information

How to Cite

Forty, L., Smith, D., Jones, L., Jones, I., Caesar, S., Cooper, C., Fraser, C., Gordon-Smith, K., Hyde, S., Farmer, A., McGuffin, P. and Craddock, N. (2009), Clinical characteristics of unipolar disorder and bipolar disorder according to the lifetime presence of recurrent panic attacks. Bipolar Disorders, 11: 307–315. doi: 10.1111/j.1399-5618.2009.00676.x

Author Information

  1. 1

    Department of Psychological Medicine, School of Medicine, Cardiff University, Cardiff

  2. 2

    Department of Psychiatry, Division of Neuroscience, University of Birmingham, Birmingham

  3. 3

    MRC SGDP Research Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

*Corresponding author: Professor Nick Craddock Department of Psychological Medicine Henry Wellcome Building for Biomedical Research Wales School of Medicine Cardiff University Heath Park Cardiff, CF14 4XN, UK Fax: +44 (0)2920 687068 e-mail: craddockn@cf.ac.uk

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 14 APR 2009
  2. Article first published online: 14 APR 2009
  3. Received 1 May 2008, revised and accepted for publication 10 September 2008

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Keywords:

  • bipolar disorder;
  • mood disorder;
  • panic attacks;
  • panic disorder;
  • unipolar disorder

Objectives:  The frequent comorbidity of panic and affective disorders has been described in previous studies. However, it is not clear how panic disorder comorbidity in unipolar disorder and bipolar disorder is related to illness course.

Methods:  We compared lifetime clinical characteristics of illness and items of symptomatology in samples of individuals with bipolar I disorder (n = 290) and unipolar disorder (n = 335) according to the lifetime presence of recurrent panic attacks.

Results:  We found significant differences in clinical course of illness characteristics that were shared across the unipolar and bipolar samples according to the lifetime presence of panic attacks. We also found a number of differences according to the presence of panic attacks that may be specific to the diagnostic group.

Conclusions:  Distinguishing patients who have mood disorder diagnoses, especially bipolar I disorder, according to the lifetime presence of panic attacks may not only be of use in clinical practice, but may also be informative for aetiological research, such as molecular genetic studies.

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