[Disability payments due to unipolar depressive and bipolar affective disorders].

Objective: Little is known concerning the frequency of disability payments due to depressive and bipolar affective disorders in Germany.
Method: 177 consecutive psychiatric in-patients were assessed with standardized interviews concerning diagnosis (SCID-I, DSM-IV) and illness history. To compare unipolar depressive and bipolar affective patients, a survival analysis was calculated.
Results: 116 patients suffered from unipolar depression, 61 from bipolar affective disorder. Highly significantly, patients with bipolar affective disorders were granted disability payments more frequently and at an earlier age. Half of the bipolar affective patients received disability payments by the age of 46 years, half of the unipolar depressive patients by the age of 58 years.
Conclusions: In this sample, bipolar affective patients received disability payments frequently and at an early age, which stresses that the prognosis of bipolar affective disorders is not as good as has been assumed for a long time. Early disability payments may lead to poverty and may obstruct access to social rehabilitation.