Aim of the study:
Assessing specific associations between a given type of childhood adversity and clinical features of the illness, in patients with bipolar disorder (BD).

Subject or material and methods:
The study included 52 patients with BD, aged 47+12 years. A questionnaire for the family history and the course of bipolar disorder, the Polish version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the own questionnaire for childhood negative experiences were used and employed to the patients during remission period.

Results:
Emotional abuse and neglect were associated with the highest number of unfavorable clinical features of BD, predicting such aspects of the illness as psychotic symptoms, suicidal attempts, rapid cycling and anxiety disorders. Also, emotional abuse was connected with the lower risk of hypertension. The total result of the CTQ was correlated with psychotic symptoms and rapid cycling, sexual abuse was linked to earlier onset of illness, and long-term separation with parents - to co-morbid anxiety disorders and obesity. Some of these associations were sex-dependent. Some connections were also found between unfavorable clinical features of BP and family history of psychiatric disorders.

Discussion:
The results obtained confirm the relationship between the negative events in childhood and disadvantageous features of BD course. They also suggest an effect of these events on some somatic conditions in adulthood in BD patients.

Conclusions:
In bipolar patients studied, we found specific associations between a type of childhood adversity and psychiatric and somatic aspects of the illness. Emotional abuse and neglect exert the biggest impact in this respect.