Several papers in the BJPsych this month address issues arising from the overlap or comorbidity between mental and physical ill health. In a UK sample of individuals with affective disorders, Forty et al (pp. 465-472) found significantly increased rates of several medical illnesses among those with bipolar and unipolar disorder compared with controls. Among those with affective disorder, migraine headache, asthma, and cardiovascular risk factors such as hyperlipidaemia and hypertension, were particularly common, for example. The authors also found a link between the burden of medical illness and the severity of mental illness course among those with bipolar disorder.
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