Anxiety is common in bipolar disorder (BD) and lifetime and current anxiety are associated with hastened bipolar depressive recurrence, a recent study found. Stanford BD Clinic outpatients enrolled during 2000–2011 were assessed with the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for BD (STEP-BD) Affective Disorders Evaluation and followed with the STEP-BD Clinical Monitoring Form while receiving naturalistic treatment for up to 2 years. Researchers found:

• Among 105 currently recovered patients, lifetime anxiety disorder was significantly associated with 10/27 (37.0%) demographic/other unfavorable illness characteristics/current mood symptoms/current psychotropics, hastened depressive recurrence (driven by earlier onset age), and a significantly (>2-fold) higher Kaplan-Meier estimated depressive recurrence rate.
• Current anxiety symptoms were significantly associated with 10/27 (37.0%) demographic/other unfavorable illness characteristics/current mood symptoms/current psychotropics and hastened depressive recurrence (driven by lifetime anxiety disorder), but only a numerically higher Kaplan-Meier estimated depressive recurrence rate.
• In contrast, among 153 currently depressed patients, lifetime anxiety disorder/current anxiety symptoms were not significantly associated with time to depressive recovery or depressive recovery rate.