does comorbidity increase risk?
INTRODUCTION: Bipolar mood disorder carries a serious suicide risk. Panic disorder, which also confers an independent risk of suicide and psychiatric comorbidity, in general has been found to amplify suicidality in mood-disordered patients. This article assesses the available literature on how panic and suicide relate to each other in bipolar mood-disordered patients. METHODS: We conducted a search on Medline and PsycINFO using the keywords “anxiety”, “attempted suicide”, “completed suicide”, “mortality”, “self-harm” in combination with “bipolar”, “manic depression” and “panic”. Twenty-four articles were included in the evaluation. RESULTS: 14 papers support increased risk, 9 papers do not support increased risk, and 3 papers are inconclusive. CONCLUSIONS: The presence of comorbid panic disorder in individuals with bipolar disorder may confer an increased risk of suicide risk. Some papers’ reviewed have conflicting conclusions but the majority of papers support an increased risk. This
