Bipolar disorder, is a mood disorder that involves extreme changes in affect, cognition, and behaviour. At the extreme level, bipolar disorder can be associated with psychotic symptoms and can require inpatient care due to marked disorganization, agitation, hostility and impulsivity in the affected individual, or due to suicidal ideation or neglect of self-care in the depressive phase. It affects males and females in equal numbers universally, and also has similar epidemiological rates across all socio-economic groups and cultures. The typical age of onset of bipolar disorder is late adolescence or early adulthood. This disorder leaves significant implications for the person's developmental trajectory and quality of life. The present study was conducted at the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Unit of Central Institute of Psychiatry (CIP), Ranchi. The present study was a cross sectional hospital based study. The sample comprised of 50 Caregivers of persons with dementia. The present study included 40 adolescents, among which 20 were adolescents with bipolar affective disorder on treatment with clozapine and 20 matched adolescent patients with bipolar affective disorder on treatment with mood stabilizer. The adolescent with bipolar disorder were selected from the child Psychiatric Unit of Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi by using purposive sampling. The following tools were used for the current study: Socio-demographic data sheet and WHOQOL–100 (WHO, 1998). The result showed that quality of life of remitted bipolar adolescent patients does not differ significantly between those treated with clozapine or mood stabilizers. However patients treated with clozapine showed better quality of life in single domain of WHOQOL scale. Thus this study concludes that clozapine may be a better alternative to mood stabilizers when medication related adverse drug effects are considered in adolescent patients with bipolar affective disorder.
