The World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative found 2.4% prevalence of bipolar disorder among the total population in 11 countries but 4.4% in the US. The report appears in the March issue of Archives of General Psychiatry, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
The researchers conducted cross-sectional, face-to-face, household surveys to describe the prevalence, symptom severity, patterns of co-existing illnesses, and patterns of service utilization for bipolar spectrum disorder (BPS). They surveyed 61,392 community adults in the United States, Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Bulgaria, Romania, China, India, Japan, Lebanon, and New Zealand.
The total lifetime prevalences found were 0.6 percent for BP-I, 0.4 percent for BP-II, and 1.4 percent for sub-threshold BP. Three-quarters of those with BP also met criteria for at least one other disorder. Anxiety disorders, especially panic attacks, were the most common comorbid condition.
Approximately 74.0 percent of respondents with depression and 50.9 percent of respondents with mania reported severe role impairment.
"Less than half of those with lifetime BPS received mental health treatment, particularly in low-income countries, where only 25.2 percent reported contact with the mental health system," the authors write.
Some of the things I wonder:
- Is the US occurrence so high because, as a colonial nation, our population "self-selected" for risk-takers?
- Are those with mania less impaired or less insightful about their impairment?
- The 0.6% Type I plus 0.4% Type II adds up to the 1% we've always heard was the bipolar prevalence globally. So what's this "subthreshhold" BP that's popping the global number up?
