To understand the admittances in a Psychiatry ward of patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) who had mixed episodes (past or present).

Retrospective study of all patients with BD admitted at Centro Hospitalar Psiquiátrico de Lisboa between October 1st, 2013 and March 31st, 2014, measuring the frequency of past and present mixed episodes, and comparing the present ones to the other patients admitted with BD.

A total of 149 patients were admitted, in which 22.54% (N=32) presented at least one mixed episode. Current mixed episodes were observed in 12% of the patients (N=17), with an average of years with BD (15.35) higher than the overall average (9.63 years), as well as a higher average of admittances (3.41 versus 3.09 overall). However, the average number of days of admission (15.2) was inferior to the general average of patients with BD (21.33). Mood at first observation was characterized in 58.82% as dysphoric, 17.65% as depressed, 11.76% as hard to evaluate. Auditory hallucinations were observed in 5.88% of the patients, inferior to the overall average (11.27%). The presence of delusional ideas (35.29%) is lower (38.03% overall), in which 50% were grandiose ideas, 33.3% persecutory and 16.67% mystic.

Almost a quarter of BD patients admitted presented at least one mixed episode, past or present. The current admitted patients had more admittances and a longer history of BD, but admitted of a shorter period. Dysphoric mood was the most frequent. The presence of perception disturbances doesn't seem to be frequent in these patients.