Bipolar Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bipolar, including details on bipolar disorder, symptoms, treatment, depression, medication.

Do social anxiety disorder patients belong to a bipolar spectrum subgroup?

Valença AM, Nardi AE, Nascimento I, Lopes FL, Freire RC, Mezzasalma MA, Veras AB, Versiani M

Institute of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, R. Visconde de Pirajá, 407/702, Rio de Janeiro-RJ-22410-003, Brazil.

BACKGROUND: It has been proposed that all forms of bipolar disorder-perhaps all primary affective disorders-are best conceptualized as a spectrum of related illness, clinically overlapping but not necessarily genetically uniform illnesses. We aim to describe with retrospective methodology the demographic, clinical, and therapeutic response in a group of social anxiety disorder (SA) patients who improves while taking antidepressants and compare them with bipolar II (B-II) patients. METHODS: 57 SA outpatients (DSM-IV) were diagnosed and naturalistic efficacious treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI). Their demographic, clinical features and therapeutic response were compared with 41 DSM-IV bipolar II patients in their starting evaluations in our outpatient clinic in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. RESULTS: There is a sub-group of SA patients who improves while taking antidepressants and presents a clear hypomanic phase. Their improvement is identical to a mild/moderate hypomanic state. Without the antidepressant, the symptoms of SA return. The SA and B-II patients have a similar number of previous depressive episodes, alcohol abuse, suicide attempts, and family history for mood disorder. LIMITATIONS: It is a retrospective data description based on a naturalist follow-up. CONCLUSION: Some SA patients have demographic, clinical and therapeutic features similar to B-II patients and they might just be a Bipolar-III sub-group with a higher level of complains to social situations and without spontaneous hypomania during lifetime.

Published 11 April 2005 in J Affect Disord, 86(1): 11-8.
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