Applying existing clinical staging models in a sample of Italian bipolar patients over a 10-years follow-up

INTRODUCTION: Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a life-course illness with evidence of a progressive nature. Although different staging models have been proposed from a theoretical perspective,longitudinal studies are scarce. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the present study was to apply four staging models in a sample of BD patients and to observe their progression in 10 years of retrospective evaluation. METHODS: In a naturalistic sample of 100 BD patients, a retrospective assessment of clinical stages across 10 years of observation at six time points (T0: 2010; T1: 2013; T2: 2015; T3: 2018; T4: 2019; T5:2020) was performed according to the BD staging models (Berk et al., 2007; Kapczinski et al., 2009; Kupka et al., 2012 and Duffy et al., 2014). Socio-demographic and clinical variables were collected and the staging progression across time was analyzed. RESULTS: A significant progressive staging worsening emerged over 10 years of BD observation for each examined model (p<0.001). Moreover, for all considered staging approaches, stage values were lower over the time points for BD II, lower number of lifetime episodes and hospitalizations (p<0.05). Finally, the stage increase was associated with a lower age at first elevated episode (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Present preliminary results confirm the relevance of illness onset and early intervention in BD, given their role in patients classified into worse clinical staging. There is an emerging need of a standardized universal staging model in order to better characterize BD patients, their treatment and their clinical course. DISCLOSURE: No significant relationships.