Abstract
Objective: Most of the previous studies evaluating patients with bipolar disorder showed that anxiety disorder comorbidity affects the appropriate treatment and the course of the disease. The aim of this study is to assess the lifetime and current anxiety disorder comorbidity prevalances and to compare clinical characteristics and quality of life among patients with and without comorbid anxiety disorder.

Methods: 70 patients who were treated at Şişli Training and Research Hospital Psychiatry Department as outpatients or inpatients between January 2010 and May 2010 aged between 18-65 years and diagnosed as having bipolar I and II disorder according to DSM-IV-TR criteria, were included in the study. Sociodemographic form, SCID-I, Hamilton Depression and Anxiety scale, Young mania rating scale, SF-36 were applied to patients.

Results: Current anxiety disorder comorbidity was found in 32.9% of the patients , the most common current comorbid anxiety disorder was obsessive compulsive disorder (20%), the second common comorbidity was social phobia (12.9%) and third common was generalized anxiety disorder (8.6%). The SF-36 subscales mental health, general health, vitality and role-physical points were higher in patients who didn’t have current anxiety disorder comorbidity.

Conclusions: Our study shows that anxiety disorder comorbidity is associated with lower quality of life and higher number of previous depressive episodes. These results show the necessity of assessing the current and lifetime anxiety disorder comorbidity and its effects on the outcome of the disease in bipolar patients in every phase of the illness.

Key words: Bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, comorbidity