Alcohol use disorders and bipolar disorder are highly comorbid. Some studies suggest that alcohol abuse or misuse might even precede the onset of bipolar disorder, but few studies have looked at the daily drinking pattern beyond diagnostic categories. We therefore examined if risk for hypomania is associated with a specific drinking pattern when using a calendar-based interview.
Conducting regression analyses, we found that an alcohol-related disorder was related to the amount and frequency of drinking, as expected. Risk for hypomania was specifically related to an unstable drinking pattern and binge drinking, but not generally higher consumption.
Risk for hypomania was associated with unstable alcohol consumption and binge drinking, even after controlling for alcohol-related disorders. This supports the idea that instability in different areas of behavior is characteristic of vulnerability to hypomania.
Request Reprint E-Mail: thomas.meyer@newcastle.ac.uk
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