Researchers at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto are beginning a study to look for biological factors involved in the link between people with bipolar disorder and heart disease. On average, people with bipolar disorder have heart disease more often and at an earlier age than those who do not, and the causes are unknown. The study will use bipolar teenagers for the study, because their bodies will be relatively unaffected by years of living with bipolar disorder, which can cause strain on the body in a number of ways. They will be looking at the functioning of blood vessels in those teenagers with bipolar disorder, and comparing it to the functioning of blood vessels in healthy teens. The full press release from Sunnybrook Hospital can be found here.
Commentary
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Whether they find something or not, this will be a useful study. My suspicion is that they won’t. The increased rates of substance abuse, smoking and obesity among people with bipolar disorder may be sufficient to explain the increased heart disease. However, if they do, this will provide valuable information that can help lengthen our lives through treatments that may be developed down the road. If not, it will provide more evidence that living as a bipolar person is damaging to our bodies, providing more reason to watch out for comorbid conditions. Either way, this study will provide some insight into why it is that we tend to get heart disease earlier and more often.
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