The Relationship Between Early Onset Bipolar I Disorder with Clinical Features and Alexithymia

INTRODUCTION: This study aimed to investigate the correlation between the early onset (EO) of Bipolar I Disorder (BD-I) and alexithymia, as well as the association between alexithymia and the clinical features of BD.
METHODS: A total of 83 individuals diagnosed with BD-I under remission were randomly selected for inclusion in the study. Among them, 39 were diagnosed before (EO) and 44 were diagnosed after 18 years of age. The participants were assessed with the Socio-demographic Data Form, Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS).
RESULTS: In the EO group, the TAS total score, difficulty describing feelings subscale score, difficulty identifying feeling score, and externally oriented thinking score were significantly higher compared to the group diagnosed after age 18. Furthermore, the EO group exhibited a higher number of hospitalizations, a greater total number of attacks, an increased number of depressive attacks, manic attacks, extended disease duration, along with a higher incidence of suicide attempts and self-harm.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that early-onset in BD-I is correlated with elevated alexithymia levels, and is associated with prolonged disease duration, increased episode frequency, and a heightened incidence of suicide attempts among the affected individuals.