Each year, around 90,000 French people are treated for bipolar disorders, with a higher prevalence in the South West.
Bipolar disorders are rife in France and more particularly in the South West. The latest weekly epidemiological bulletin (BEH) examines this mental pathology and provides, for the first time, precise data on its prevalence at the national level. Thus, each year in France, between 80,000 and 95,000 people are treated for bipolar disorders (TB), according to these figures provided by Public Health France.
Formerly referred to as manic-depressive illness, TB is a chronic pathology that often appears early in adolescents or young adults, and which requires lifelong management. It is characterized by abnormal variations in mood, with depressive phases and manic or hypomanic phases, interspersed with periods of stability.
More common in women
Data show that this disorder tends to develop more frequently in women than in men (160 to 190 women per 100,000 and 105 to 120 men per 100,000), but that management is increasing overall in both. (+ 2.6% per year for men, 3.4% per year for women).
Treatment for TB in psychiatry was relatively rare before the age of 15 and concerned both boys and girls, the authors said. From the age of 15 and into old age, women were between 1.2 and 1.8 times more often treated for TB than men.
Regional “gradient”
Regional disparities exist, according to these data. Thus, the rates of patients treated for TB varied among men from 81 per 100,000 in Hauts-de-France to 162 per 100,000 in Occitanie. Among women, the rates ranged from 122 per 100,000 in Hauts-de-France to 275 per 100,000 in New Aquitaine.
“In both men and women, there is a North-East / South-West gradient, with rates 20% higher than the national rate in the two regions of the South-West,” explains the agency.
Source: BEH
Better spotting?
However, these disparities cannot be entirely attributed to variations in prevalence depending on the region, explains Santé Publique France. “They can also be due to a difference in the offer of care and in the management of these disorders by health establishments”. Thus, the South West may prove to be more effective in the detection and management of these disorders, which would explain these higher rates.
Be that as it may, throughout the country, mood disorders (bipolar disorders and depressive disorders) represent a real burden in terms of public health. Consequently, “it is necessary to continue and consolidate their epidemiological surveillance from the use of treatment data”, insists Public Health France, which calls for “actions of detection and early treatment of disorders. of the mood (…) in order to avoid the chronicization of the disorders and the passage to the suicidal act ”.
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