Sleep quality in bipolar disorder: A comparative study of treatment with lithium and valproic acid

Table 1 Demographic and clinical characteristics of bipolar disorder patients treated with lithium or valproic acid, mean ± SD or n (%)

	All patients (n = 130)		t value	χ2	P value
	Lithium (n = 78)	Valproic acid (n = 52)
Age	46.46 ± 11.13	44.26 ± 10.10	1.140		0.256
Education level (years)	10.50 ± 4.49	11.21 ± 4.25	-0.904		0.368
Body mass index	29.27 ± 4.81	29.52 ± 5.16	-0.280		0.780
Duration of illness (years)	20.57 ± 8.94	19.40 ± 10.12	0.695		0.489
Total number of episodes	6.46 ± 3.82	8.80 ± 6.73	-2.526		0.013
Number of depressive episodes	3.00 ± 3.06	4.28 ± 4.36	-1.978		0.050
Age at the first episode	28.02 ± 20.30	25.28 ± 8.56	0.918		0.360
Sex				0.923	0.337
Male	32 (41.0)	17 (32.7)
Female	46 (59.0)	35 (67.3)
Marital status (not married)	26 (33.3)	24 (46.2)		2.167	0.141
Employment				0.475	0.491
No/irregular	51 (65.4)	37 (71.2)
Regular	27 (34.6)	15 (28.8)
Smoking				1.154	0.283
Yes	42 (53.8)	23 (44.2)
No	36 (46.2)	29 (55.8)
History of ECT (yes)	29 (37.2)	11 (21.2)		3.765	0.052
History of suicide attempt (yes)	22 (28.2)	13 (25.0)		0.163	0.686
History of self-mutilation (yes)	2 (2.6)	2 (3.8)		0.172	0.678
Family history of bipolar disease (yes)	27 (34.6)	20 (38.5)		0.200	0.655
Psychotic features during episodes (present)	60 (76.9)	38 (73.1)		0.249	0.618
Diagnosis				0.836	0.361
Bipolar I disorder	61 (78.2)	37 (71.2)
Bipolar II disorder	17 (21.8)	15 (28.8)

Student's t-test and χ² test were used, P < 0.05 was considered as statistically significant (bold values). ECT: Electroconvulsive therapy.