Medical Comorbidities in Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a common, heritable, chronic, and recurrent disorder that represents a critical public health problem, due to its prevalence, its high degree of disability and psychiatric and MC (MC): these represent a significant additive burden for BD patients, with a large clinical heterogeneity and an urgent need for personalised treatment and management. BIPCOM overarching purpose is to study MC in people with BD and to improve diagnostic and treatment outcomes with a precision medicine approach targeting 3 objectives: (1) to identify prevalence rates, risk and protective factors and natural history of MC among subjects with BD, through analyses of the Nordic biobanks and medical registers Work Package WP(WP2) and a cross- sectional study exploiting existing datasets of patients with BD (WP3); (2) to conduct an Exploratory Clinical Study (ECS - WP4) involving 400 subjects (80 X 5 recruiting sites), to assess the overall clinical profile of these patients and quantify the 1-year incidence of specific risk factors for the onset of metabolic syndrome (MetS) (WP5); (3) to develop a Clinical Support Tool (CST), including a set of recommendations, to support individualized clinical decision-making in BD comorbidity management and improve prevention, early detection and effective treatment, while ensuring the translation of project results' into clinical practice (WP5 and 6). BIPCOM will be implemented through continuous consultations with stakeholders (scientific and patients' associations, users and families), for ensuring results' acceptability and transferability. The successful implementation of the project will have a significant impact upon the general health of people with BD, eventually leading to lower mortality rates and reduced incidence of severe disabilities, whilst providing reliable methods and tools for patients' stratification and personalized treatments.