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Whether the early treatment pattern in people with bipolar disorder (BD) could influence later mortality remains to be determined. We aimed to explore the potential effects of early hospitalization and number of outpatient clinic visits on the 3-year mortality in patients with newly diagnosed BD.

Adult participants with newly diagnosed BD were identified in Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database in 2008. Survival analyses were performed with this national cohort to examine the associations between the first-year treatment pattern (hospitalization and number of outpatient clinic visits) and mortality over a follow-up period of 3 years (2008–2011).

A total of 15,254 participants were included. The mean age was 44.9 (S.D.=16.7) years and around 39.9% were male. The average follow-up time was 1055 days. Compared to BD patients with ≥7 times outpatient clinic visits within the …