Tania Perich1

1Western Sydney University, Australia

Biography:

Tania has worked in research primarily in the treatment and management of bipolar disorder and depression. Currently Tania is working as a researcher in the area of bipolar disorder at Western Sydney University where her focus is on researching the benefits of psychological interventions in the management of this condition. She also focusses on the impact of hormonal events on women with bipolar disorder and in particular menopause. She also has an interest in factors associated with living well with bipolar disorder including quality of life, recovery, understanding stigma and improving diagnosis and treatment outcomes.

Bipolar Disorder is a chronic mental health condition that is marked by episodes of depression and hypo/mania. A previous systematic review undertaken by the author in 2017 noted that despite the severity of this mental health condition, only nine studies were identified that considered the impact of menopause in bipolar disorder. In the review, menopause was found to have a significant with studies noted an increase in symptoms overall, with many studies reporting increased symptoms of depression specifically in range of 46%-91%.

An updated rapid review is currently being conducted by the author that considers research from the past 10 years (https://osf.io/qu463/overview) since the previous review was published.

This presentation will provide a synthesis of the previous literature and preliminary results from the rapid review, providing updated information on the impact of menopause on the clinical course of bipolar disorder. It will report on the impact on relapse rates, symptom severity and the experience of menopause symptoms and how this information may inform treatment and care for those living with this condition.