Abstract: Bipolar disorder (BD) is a kind of psychiatric disorder with wildly alternating emotion and complicated symptoms. Subjects with BD had a significantly higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome when compared to subjects with major depressive disorder and non-psychiatric controls, with risk related to a higher depression score and abdominal obesity. Gender difference in the patients with BD and obesity may be related to childhood adversity, migraine, hormonal alterations, psychotropic medications, diet and lifestyle factors. This article reviewed clinical features and the potential mechanism of gender difference in bipolar disorder with comorbidity of obesity.

Key words: bipolar disorder, obesity, gender, metabolic syndrome