LOS ANGELES — Mood episodes in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) that occur more frequently or severely during specific seasons — known as seasonality patterns — are associated with treatment response and different characteristics and subtypes of the disorder, new research suggested.
In a study of more than 1700 patients with BD, investigators found links between seasonality and age at BD onset, BD type, and lifetime use of antipsychotics and any psychotropics. The findings also showed associations between medication response and fall-winter depression and spring-summer hypomania.
“A take-home message is that people should start to think about seasonality with respect to distinct seasons; it shouldn’t just be that a patient has seasonal features or not,”…