Which factors delay treatment in bipolar disorder? A nationwide study focussed on duration of untreated illness

Aim The aim of the present study was to detect factors associated with duration of untreated illness (DUI) in bipolar disorder (BD). Method A total of 1575 patients were selected for the purposes of the study. Correlation analyses were performed to analyse the relation between DUI and quantitative variables. The length of DUI was compared between groups defined by qualitative variables through one‐way analyses of variance or Kruskal‐Wallis's tests according to the distribution of the variable. Linear multivariable regressions were used to find the most parsimonious set of variables independently associated with DUI: to this aim, qualitative variables were inserted with the numeric code of their classes by assuming a proportional effect moving from one class to another. Results An inverse significant correlation between length of DUI and time between visits in euthymic patients was observed (r = −.52, P