Poor long-term prognosis in mixed bipolar patients: 10-year outcomes in the Vitoria prospective naturalistic study in Spain.

Objective: There have been few prospective long-term naturalistic studies of patients with mixed episodes of bipolar disorder. The aim of this study was to examine 10-year outcomes in patients with at least 1 mixed episode.

Method: A naturalistic sample of bipolar I disorder patients (n = 120), representative of bipolar patients treated in a catchment area of Spain, was followed prospectively for up to 10 years.