Fig. 2

Timeline for patients with bipolar disorder (N = 8935). The figure shows the sequential timeline of medical history for all patients in the cohort. Patients entered the specialist mental healthcare system for the first time with a mean age of 37.13 years. Patients were hospitalized 2.13 years later for the first time with a mean age of 39.26 years. Patients received their first F31 diagnosis at a mean age of 43.59; the time to diagnosis of bipolar disorder measured from the date of the first presentation to any specialist mental healthcare service was 6.46 years on average. * Age at first hospitalization is calculated only for patients being hospitalized (N = 6608; 63,99%)