The following is a summary of “Association of Occupational Dysfunction and Hospital Admissions With Different Polygenic Profiles in Bipolar Disorder,” published in the June 2024 issue of Psychiatry by Jonsson et al.
People with bipolar disorder need hospital care for severe mood episodes, while others face long-term work issues even beyond these episodes. It’s unclear if the different outcomes are linked to various genetic profiles.
Researchers conducted a retrospective study assessing polygenic scores (PGSs) for major psychiatric disorders and educational attainment related to work functioning and hospital admissions in bipolar disorder.
They studied 4,782 patients with bipolar disorder and 2,963 controls, linking them to Swedish national registries. Using 10+ years of registry data, employment gaps, long-term sick leave, and annual psychiatric hospital admissions were calculated. Ordinal regression tested links between outcomes and PGSs for various psychiatric disorders and educational attainment. Replication analyses of hospital admissions were conducted with data from the Bipolar Disorder Research Network cohort (N=4,219).
The results showed that long-term sick leave and unemployment in bipolar disorder were significantly linked to PGSs for schizophrenia, ADHD, major depressive disorder, and educational attainment but not to the PGSs for bipolar disorder. However, higher yearly hospital admissions were associated with higher PGSs for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia but not with the other PGSs.
Investigators concluded that the genetic factors influencing bipolar disorder severity differed from those affecting long-term job issues, implying that addressing job dysfunction required different approaches than those used to manage mood episodes.
Source: psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.ajp.20230073
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