Comparison of Demographic and Diagnostic Characteristics of Iranian Inpatients With Bipolar I Disorder to Western Counterparts

BACKGROUND Patients' characteristics influence the disorders outcome, so it is valuable to compare mood disorders and inpatients' attributes in different large samples. OBJECTIVES This study was designed to assess demographic and diagnostic characteristics of 3000 Iranian inpatient with bipolar disorders. PATIENTS AND METHODS We collected the information of demographic, clinical, and therapeutic characteristics of the patients who were hospitalized in Iran Hospital of Psychiatry, a university affiliated hospital in Tehran, during the 5 years from 2006 to 2011. RESULTS About 66.1% of the subjects were males and 33.9% were females. Iranian patients are characterized by a higher rate of unemployment, being more single, having health insurance and lower rate of divorce and education compared to the other clinical samples. In the majority of the patients, the disorder had begun with manic phase. CONCLUSIONS Clinical and therapeutic features of Iranian patients are different from patients in western countries.