Clinical Risk Constellations for the Development of Bipolar Disorders
Eva Burkhardt,
Andrea Pfennig,
Karolina Leopold
Affiliations
Eva Burkhardt
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Vivantes Klinikum Am Urban and Vivantes Klinikum Im Friedrichshain, Teaching Hospitals of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10967 Berlin, Germany
Andrea Pfennig
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus, Technische Universität Dresden, 01307 Dresden, Germany
Karolina Leopold
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatic Medicine, Vivantes Klinikum Am Urban and Vivantes Klinikum Im Friedrichshain, Teaching Hospitals of Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, 10967 Berlin, Germany
The early recognition of psychiatric disorders has been a focus of research in the last decades and has led to improvements in clinical care, especially in the area of early psychosis. Like non-affective psychosis, bipolar disorders are often diagnosed with a delay that can lead to long periods of untreated illness and impact long-term outcomes. This article presents the rationale for early recognition in bipolar disorder and presents the current evidence for the identification of risk factors, their assessment and validity in predicting the onset of bipolar disorder.
