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Revealed: The impact of Covid-19 on people living with bipolar disorder

There are approximately 1.3 million people currently living with bipolar in the UK and it is one of the most common long-term conditions - PA
There are approximately 1.3 million people currently living with bipolar in the UK and it is one of the most common long-term conditions - PA

The Covid-19 crisis is causing a “marked deterioration in people’s mental health” with those suffering from bipolar disorder being especially hard hit, according to new research the charity Bipolar UK.

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness characterised by significant mood swings, including hypomanic or manic highs and depressive lows. There are approximately 1.3 million people currently living with bipolar in the UK and it is one of the most common long-term conditions, but despite this it is often heavily stigmatised and misrepresented.

The charity, which has been supporting people with bipolar since the early 1980s, surveyed over 1,750 people during the UK lockdown period and found that more than a third of respondents said they had an increase in suicidal thoughts.

The survey also revealed that 65 per cent of people living with bipolar reported experiencing depressive symptoms since the onset of the crisis, while the number of people saying that their mood was stable has more than halved, from 35 per cent to just 16 per cent. The number of people reporting being in a “balanced” mood range also fell, from 69 per cent to 42.

This represents a “marked deterioration in people’s mental health” during the lockdown period, according to the charity, and suggests that around 351,000 (58 per cent) of people with bipolar in the UK may now be unwell and requiring additional support.

Numbers to call
Numbers to call

“Bipolar disorder has the highest rate of suicide of any mental illness - 20 times higher than the general population - so we are very worried about the safety of many of our members,” said Simon Kitchen, CEO of Bipolar UK.

Support, however, has been increasingly difficult to come by at a time when many need it the most: as resources were diverted and many in-person appointments abandoned to combat the spread of Covid-19, access to mental health services across the UK in general has taken a significant hit. 

This has especially been the case for people living with bipolar: 55 per cent said they found it impossible or harder to access their GP, 43 per cent found accessing a psychiatrist harder or impossible, and 40 per cent found accessing prescribed medication from a pharmacy harder.

“It’s been a big worry. With a lot of GP surgeries it’s been hit and miss with providing access to the core services that people need,” Mr Kitchen told The Telegraph. “People need to be able to review their medication, they need to be able to talk to doctors, and they need to be able to maintain routines to help them stay well.

“There’s going to be more need for people with bipolar because a lot of the support services were ripped away when Covid happened, so the number of referrals through to psychiatrists has gone down because some GPs aren’t seeing people and aren’t checking in on people,” he said.

“Now there seems to be a real surge in people who previously were just engaging with mental health services to stay well, and are now coming through really poorly and unwell. That’s going to be a big issue for mental health services.”

Rosie Phillips, who runs the charity’s peer support line and lives with bipolar herself, says that the drop in referrals to psychiatrists is a particular problem for those who haven’t been diagnosed yet, as GPs can’t diagnose someone with bipolar. “If they’re pre-diagnosis, that’s a real struggle,” she said.

But even in non-Covid times the process of getting diagnosed with bipolar can be a long and arduous one. “I’ve spoken to some people in a really difficult situation where their GP hasn’t really pushed them forward to get a diagnosis or assessment. GPs are often quite reluctant to do that next step and make a referral,” said Ms Phillips.

In numbers: how Covid-19 has impacted NHS treatment
In numbers: how Covid-19 has impacted NHS treatment

Bipolar is also often initially misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder - something that can be particularly problematic when a patient is then put on antidepressants, which can trigger a manic episode.

To combat varying attitudes of GPs and the potential for misdiagnosis, Bipolar UK recommends keeping a mood diary, bringing another person with you to your appointment, or requesting a referral to a psychiatrist.

A question plaguing the minds of many mental health campaigners is whether funding commitments from the Government will still be met in light of the pandemic - funding that many described as insufficient even before Covid-19 struck.

“It is frustrating. It’s an under-funded area, we know that,” said Ms Phillips. “If the Government chose to invest more money into it they’d probably save more work hours, there’d be less sick days, people would have a better quality of life and there’d be less of a draw on resources.”

“Everyone knows the national finances are going to be in a mess,” said Mr Kitchen. “This was supposed to be the time for mental health, and I guess it’s waiting to see if those commitments in mental health funding are still honoured.

“There’s also the long-term problem of supply of clinicians within the workforce. There’s not enough psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses coming through to be able to meet the demand,” he added.

“Lots of junior doctors were also taken away from psychiatric services and rushed over to Covid, and actually for people with bipolar, what we saw is that almost twice as many were hospitalised due to suicide attempts.

“So even though people are more worried about Covid, actually the thing that’s causing the most harm is the uncertainty and the potential for relapse.”

One female respondent to the survey, aged 72, described it being “more difficult than ever” to have bipolar. “My head’s spinning around constantly trying to keep track of what and how to do everything. If this is stressing people in general, imagine how it’s affecting people who already struggle daily,” she said.

Another woman, aged 36, caught Covid-19 at a time when she was “actively suicidal”. “Everything seemed to be a darker shade of black. I fought for my life,” she said.

“I’m quite lucky in that I manage my condition really well; my medication works really well and I have a great support network and a really good job,” said Jennifer Bradley*, 24.

“It’s important that people know that, especially when media portrayals are always so extreme - that many people with bipolar live completely normal and successful lives, or normal compared to what people expect at least,” she told The Telegraph.

“But that doesn’t mean that it isn’t a constant struggle, and it’s definitely been harder because of lockdown. The stressful elements of my life, like my job, have stayed the same because I haven’t been furloughed, but all of the things that keep me afloat have been taken away.

“Seeing friends regularly, going to the cinema, going to pubs and restaurants - it sounds trivial but all of those things really improve my mood and help me manage. I’ve experienced some really severe depressive symptoms throughout the last few months on quite an existential level.

“Those haven’t escalated to anything like suicidal thoughts, as they have with me before, but I know that’s happened for a lot of people and I really worry about how I’ll cope if things carry on like this for much longer. It’s like feeling as bad as everybody else does at the moment, and then you multiply it by a hundred.”