Was blog-surfing my list of bipolar blogs the other day, and on the blog A Little Crazy…Aren’t We All, Maggs had a link to an article titled In Workplace, Bipolar Disorder Exacts Twice Depression's Toll.
While this article doesn’t tell any of us that suffer from bipolar disorder anything we don’t already know, it’s vindication for anyone who doesn’t realize how devastating this can be. Here are some excerpts:
“Bipolar disorder costs twice as much in lost productivity as major depressive disorder, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found. Each U.S. worker with bipolar disorder averaged 65.5 lost workdays in a year, compared to 27.2 for major depression. Even though major depression is more than six times as prevalent, bipolar disorder costs the U.S. workplace nearly half as much - a disproportionately high $14.1 billion annually.”
Now this is fascinating, an average of 65.5 lost workdays a year. They can’t be measuring only time away from work, this has to be mainly productivity losses due to our disorders. It goes on to say:
“Researchers traced the higher toll mostly to bipolar disorder's more severe depressive episodes rather than to its agitated manic periods.”
Now this is interesting, I would have thought it almost the same. Personally, my manias are just as debilitating, if not more so, than my depressions. But I can see the degree or depth of depression being worse for those with bipolar disorder. For me, while depressions don’t usually last long, when they hit, they hit hard. Although, I have had depressions last as long as a year.
“About three-fourths of bipolar respondents had experienced depressive episodes over the past year, with about 63 percent also having agitated manic or hypomanic episodes. The bipolar-associated depressive episodes were much more persistent - affecting 134-164 days - compared to only 98 days for major depression. The bipolar-associated depressive episodes were also more severe. All measures of lost work performance were consistently higher among workers with bipolar disorder who had major depressive episodes than those who reported only manic or hypomanic episodes. The latter workers' lost performance was on a par with workers who had major depressive disorder.”
Ah – There’s an interesting sentence in there. They talk about workers suffering only manic or hypomanic episodes. I would assume many, if not most of us with bipolar disorder that suffer manic episodes ALSO suffer depression. Although it’s not necessarily the other way around. Makes you wonder about the sample, doesn’t it?
“’Major depressive episodes due to bipolar disorder are sometimes incorrectly treated as major depressive disorder,’ noted (researcher)Wang. ‘Since antidepressants can trigger the onset of mania, workplace programs should first rule out the possibility that a depressive episode may be due to bipolar disorder.’”
While this article doesn’t tell any of us that suffer from bipolar disorder anything we don’t already know, it’s vindication for anyone who doesn’t realize how devastating this can be. Here are some excerpts:
“Bipolar disorder costs twice as much in lost productivity as major depressive disorder, a study funded by the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has found. Each U.S. worker with bipolar disorder averaged 65.5 lost workdays in a year, compared to 27.2 for major depression. Even though major depression is more than six times as prevalent, bipolar disorder costs the U.S. workplace nearly half as much - a disproportionately high $14.1 billion annually.”
Now this is fascinating, an average of 65.5 lost workdays a year. They can’t be measuring only time away from work, this has to be mainly productivity losses due to our disorders. It goes on to say:
“Researchers traced the higher toll mostly to bipolar disorder's more severe depressive episodes rather than to its agitated manic periods.”
Now this is interesting, I would have thought it almost the same. Personally, my manias are just as debilitating, if not more so, than my depressions. But I can see the degree or depth of depression being worse for those with bipolar disorder. For me, while depressions don’t usually last long, when they hit, they hit hard. Although, I have had depressions last as long as a year.
“About three-fourths of bipolar respondents had experienced depressive episodes over the past year, with about 63 percent also having agitated manic or hypomanic episodes. The bipolar-associated depressive episodes were much more persistent - affecting 134-164 days - compared to only 98 days for major depression. The bipolar-associated depressive episodes were also more severe. All measures of lost work performance were consistently higher among workers with bipolar disorder who had major depressive episodes than those who reported only manic or hypomanic episodes. The latter workers' lost performance was on a par with workers who had major depressive disorder.”
Ah – There’s an interesting sentence in there. They talk about workers suffering only manic or hypomanic episodes. I would assume many, if not most of us with bipolar disorder that suffer manic episodes ALSO suffer depression. Although it’s not necessarily the other way around. Makes you wonder about the sample, doesn’t it?
“’Major depressive episodes due to bipolar disorder are sometimes incorrectly treated as major depressive disorder,’ noted (researcher)Wang. ‘Since antidepressants can trigger the onset of mania, workplace programs should first rule out the possibility that a depressive episode may be due to bipolar disorder.’”
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