Predominant previous polarity as an outcome predictor in a controlled treatment trial for depression in bipolar I disorder patients

Vieta, E.; Berk, M.; Wang, W.; Colom, F.; Tohen, M.; Baldessarini, R.J.

doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.02.028

« Previous Next »Journal of Affective Disorders
Volume 119, Issue 1 , Pages 22-27, December 2009

Predominant previous polarity as an outcome predictor in a controlled treatment trial for depression in bipolar I disorder patients

E. Vieta
- Bipolar Disorders Program, University of Barcelona Hospital Clinic, Institut d'Investigacions Biomédiques Agustí Pi Sunyer, CIBER-SAM, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychiatry & Neuroscience Program, Harvard Medical School; International Consortium for Bipolar Disorders Research, McLean Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Corresponding author. Bipolar Disorders Program, Clinical Institute of Neuroscience, Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Villarroel 170. 08036 Barcelona, Spain. Tel.: +34 93 227 5401; fax: +34 93 227 9876.
M. Berk
- Department of Clinical and Biomedical Sciences, University of Melbourne; The Mental Health Research Institute and Orygen Research Center, Melbourne, Australia
W. Wang
- Department of Psychiatry, Univerity of Oxford, United Kingdom
F. Colom
- Bipolar Disorders Program, University of Barcelona Hospital Clinic, Institut d'Investigacions Biomédiques Agustí Pi Sunyer, CIBER-SAM, Barcelona, Spain
- Department of Psychiatry, Univerity of Oxford, United Kingdom
M. Tohen
- Department of Psychiatry & Neuroscience Program, Harvard Medical School; International Consortium for Bipolar Disorders Research, McLean Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
- Lilly Research Laboratories, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
R.J. Baldessarini
- Department of Psychiatry & Neuroscience Program, Harvard Medical School; International Consortium for Bipolar Disorders Research, McLean Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Received 15 September 2008; received in revised form 25 February 2009; accepted 26 February 2009.

Abstract

Introduction

We hypothesized that predominant episode-polarity would predict response to treatment of depressive episodes in bipolar I disorder (BPD) patients with treatment in a placebo-controlled trial, in the sense that patients with manic predominant polarity (PM) would respond better than patients with depressive predominant polarity (PD).

Method

This post-hoc analysis of a published trial examined outcomes of 788 depressed (MADRS score ≥20) adult BPD patients with baseline and follow-up assessments, according to their predominant polarity based on previous recurrences of mania-hypomania vs. depression in ≥2:1 excess. Patients (total=833) were randomized to an 8-week trial of treatment with placebo (n=377), olanzapine (5–20 mg/day; n=370), or olanzapine/fluoxetine combination (OFC; 6/25, 6/50, or 12/50 mg/day; n=86). Treatment response was based on improvement in Clinical Global Impression of depression severity (CGI-D). We analyzed for associations of this outcome with predominant lifetime illness-polarity, based on retrospective SCID-based assessment of individual clinical history.

Results

Predominant polarity could be demonstrated in 367/788 patients (46.6%), showing a 2.7-fold excess of predominant depressive over manic past-illnesses (34.1%/12.4%), with similar distribution by sex and among treatment-arms. Moreover, based on least-square change in CGI-D severity (based on a mixed model of repeated measures [MMRM]), predominant polarity has different impact in the treatment outcome for each gender. Men with predominantly manic polarity had statistically significant better improvement than men with predominantly depressive polarity. Such difference was not observed in the female population. Other outcome measures yielded similar conclusions.