To explore the factors associated with occurrence of suicidal risk after treatment of Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) in bipolar disorder with their first depressive episode.

One hundred and seventy seven bipolar patients were enrolled in this retrospective study. Demographic and clinic features between non-occurrence of suicidal risk group and occurrence of suicidal risk group were compared. Stepwise Logistic regression model was used to identify the associated factors. Concordance statistics (i.e. the area under the ROC curve) was used to compute the discrimination of the associated factors, and Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit statistic was used to measure the goodness-of-fit.

One hundred and fifty four patients were included in non-occurrence of suicidal risk group, while twenty three were included in occurrence of suicidal risk group. Clinical features associated with occurrence of suicidal risk after treatment of SSRI in bipolar disorder were as follows: symptom of irritability (OR=4.04, 95 CI:1.40-11.67) and psychotic symptom (OR=6.23, 95 CI:1.40-27.56).

This study demonstrated indicated that psychotic symptom and symptom of irritability were associated with occurrence of suicidal risk after treatment of SSRI in bipolar disorder, and it suggested that these two symptoms might be potential to be the predictors of occurrence of suicidal risk after treatment of SSRI in bipolar disorder.