Somatic symptoms, functionality, and bipolar disorder type 1: The role of childhood trauma

Objective: Somatic symptoms, with the heterogeneous character that are not fully explained by a medical condition, are common in bipolar disorder type-1 (BD-1) which might interfere with the choice of treatment, health-care utilization, medical costs as well as functionality. The purpose of this study was to evaluate association of somatic symptoms with sociodemographic-clin-ical features, functionality, and childhood trauma in remitted BD-1. Method: After excluding patients with medical comorbidities, 61 patients diagnosed with BD-1 according to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders participated in the study. We required at least 8 weeks of remission and confirmed it with hamilton depression rating scale and young mania rating scale. Somatization Scale, functioning assessment short test (FAST), and childhood trauma questionnaire (CTQ) were administered to the participants. Results: Somatization scores were significantly correlated with CTQ-total (r=0.323, p=0.011) and FAST-total (r=0.278, p=0.03), while inversely correlated with years in education (r=-0.395, p=0.002). When a partial correlation was run to determine the relationship between somatization and functioning, while controlling for childhood trauma, there was no statistically significant correlation between somatization and functioning (p=0.076). Conclusion: Our study suggests that childhood trauma may have an influence on the relationship between somatization and functionality in patients with BD-1. When addressing somatic symptoms in patients with BD, an integrated approach including childhood trauma should be considered.