TOPLINE:

Sex differences may affect neurocognitive performance and somatic outcomes in people with bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ), new research suggested. Significant interactions between sex and diagnosis were found for age at first outpatient treatment, illness duration, and rate of substance use.

METHODOLOGY:

• The cross-sectional analysis included data from the multicenter PsyCourse study for more than 1000 adults with severe mental illness (SMI, mean age, 42 years; 57% men, about half with BD and the others with SZ) and more than 400 healthy control individuals (mean age, 36 years; 59% women).
• Researchers investigated the differences in outcomes between groups and sexes in terms of sociodemographic characteristics, psychosocial functioning, quality of life, neurocognitive performance, and somatic comorbidities.

TAKEAWAY:

• Significant interactions were observed between sex and diagnosis in terms of baseline age (P = .001), age at first outpatient treatment (P = .05), duration of illness (P = .03), rates of illicit drug use (P = .01), and smoking (P = .05).
• Men with SZ had the highest rates of substance use across all groups, and women with BD had better performance in verbal memory (P = .003) and psychomotor speed (P <  .001) than men with BD.
• Across both sexes, healthy control individuals outperformed individuals with SMI in neurocognitive performance, while the BD group showed better functioning and neurocognitive performance than the SZ group.
• Women with SMI had a higher prevalence of hypertension than women without SMI. Across both sexes, the BD group had a higher risk for thyroid alterations than the SZ or healthy control groups.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our data highlight the importance of considering sex differences in BD and SZ, as sex may significantly impact their pathogenesis and course. Treatment plans should be sex-sensitive to improve clinical outcomes while promoting healthy lifestyle habits and monitoring physical comorbidities,” the investigators wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Maria Serra-Navarro, Hospital Clinic of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. It was published online on September 3 in Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.

LIMITATIONS:

The total sample lacked sufficient statistical power to detect interactions between diagnosis and sex. Additional limitations included potential false positives, lack of data on female reproductive life events and gender, limited ethnic diversity, and a potential subjective bias in self-reported comorbidity data.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Some investigators reported having financial or employment ties with various sources. Full details are provided in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.