A survey of experiences of and attitudes to advance decision-making amongst people with bipolar: questionnaire and supplementary information

The idea that people with severe mental illness should be able to plan in advance for periods of illness as a means of enhancing autonomy has been long debated and is increasingly being enshrined in codes of practice and mental health legislation. It has been argued that the ethical imperative for this is especially pronounced in bipolar (BP), a condition in which sufferers often experience episodic crises interspersed with periods of wellness. However, there is a paucity of published research investigating experiences of advance decision making (ADM) in people with BP or their attitudes towards it. Therefore an online survey of BPUK’s mailing list was conducted. 932 people with BP completed the survey (response rate 5.61%). Here we present (a) the questionnaire designed specifically for this study and (b) the study's supplementary information (generation of outcomes of interest, missing data analysis and cross-tabulations of outcomes of interest with independent variables)