Dr.Fekadu, Abebaw (M.D., Psychiatrist)Dr.Getachew, Meron (M.D., Psychiatrist)Asefa, Abdulselam2021-02-212023-11-052021-02-212023-11-052020-12http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/25158Background Bipolar disorders are among the most common severe mental illnesses. They are characterized by episodes of mania, hypomania and depression of various severity. Worldwide the prevalence of the disorder is similar with little differences across ethnicity, gender or socioeconomic status. Antipsychotics, mood stabilizers and lithium are among the medications used to treat the disorder. Objective The study aimed to identify and describe the clinical profiles, demographic characteristics, and treatment trends of newly diagnosed patients with bipolar and related disorders. Methodology The study was conducted at Amanuel Mental Specialized Hospital (AMSH) focusing only on the newly diagnosed patients with bipolar disorders. All newly diagnosed patients with bipolar disorder who visited the hospital from January 1, 2019 – March 30, 2019 were included in the study. All the data were extracted from the charts of the patients. Results: Records of a total of 147 newly diagnosed patients with bipolar disorders were evaluated. The study showed a comparable proportion of male (47.6%) and female (52.4%) participants. The mean age of the patients during their visit to the hospital was 29.57 years with a standard deviation of 11.46 years. Aggressiveness 64(43.5%), urge to be on the move 23(15.6%), difficulty of sleeping 18 (12.2%) were the three most common presenting complaints. From the reviewed 147 records, 144 were shown to be bipolar I disorder and the rest 3 were not labelled at all- a simple “bipolar disorder” was recorded as a diagnosis. Most presented with manic episode with psychotic features (42.2%) followed by psychotic features, and depressive episode with psychotic features. More women (n=14) presented with depressive episodes than men (n=7). A total of 57 patients reported/showed various degrees of suicidality, 29 of them had suicidal ideation, while 26 had attempted suicide. All of the patients were prescribed with orally taken antipsychotics. Three quarter of them were also given mood stabilizing anticonvulsants. 59.2% of the patients were prescribed with a combination of antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. Conclusion: The sociodemographic characteristics found from this research is comparable to other studies around the world. Bipolar I disorder was the prevailing diagnosis. Most were found to have psychotic features in the study and most had manic episodes at first presentation to the hospital. Most of the patients were administered antipsychotics and required emergency admission.en-USBipolar Disorder , Amanuel Mental Specialized HospitalThesis