Abstract
Objectives:Cognitive impairment may affect patients with Bipolar Disorder (BD) beyond the acute episodes, qualifying as a potential endophenotype. However, which cognitive domains are specifically affected in euthymic patients with BD and the potential influence of confounding factors (e.g., age and concomitant pharmacological treatment) are still a matter of debate. The present study was, therefore, conducted to assess cognitive performance across specific domains in euthymic bipolar patients, not older than 50 years (to avoid potential age-related bias) versus healthy controls (HCs).Methods:A cognitive task battery, including the Wisconsin Card Test, Span Attention Test, Tower of London, Trail Making Test, Verbal Fluency Test, Matrices Scores and N-Back, was administered to 62 subjects (30 bipolar patients and 32 matched HCs) and differences between the groups analyzed.Results:Bipolar patients performed significantly worse than HCs in the Span Forward task, in the expression of Verbal Fluency Test (Category) and in the N-Back task (all p<.05), with marginal differences between BD I and BD II patients.Conclusion:The present study pointed out significant differences in terms of cognitive performance between euthymic bipolar patients and HCs, supporting the notion that specific cognitive functions may remain impaired even after the resolution of the acute episodes in subjects suffering from BD. Future studies on larger samples are warranted to confirm the present results and further explore potential differences in cognitive impairment across specific bipolar subtypes.
Highlights
Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a highly disabling condition with a complex gene-environment etiology [1]
Among the core symptoms of BD, cognitive impairment seems to be a consistent feature during acute episodes [2, 3]
Some studies point out that cognitive deficits represent an early feature of Major Depressive Disorder, with the involvement of executive functioning, attention, learning and memory, in the acute phase but throughout the entire course of the disease [7]
Summary
Bipolar Disorder (BD) is a highly disabling condition with a complex gene-environment etiology [1]. Among the core symptoms of BD, cognitive impairment seems to be a consistent feature during acute episodes [2, 3]. Cognitive symptoms have been extensively investigated during depressive episodes, either in unipolar and bipolar patients [4]. Attentional deficit, impaired short- and long-term memory, decision making and judgement have been reportedly observed in depressed patients and are among the criteria of Major Depressive Episode for DSM-5 [5] and ICD-10 [6]. Some studies point out that cognitive deficits represent an early feature of Major Depressive Disorder, with the involvement of executive functioning, attention, learning and memory, in the acute phase but throughout the entire course of the disease [7]. Data from the literature show that cognitive deficits can improve with pharmacological treatment [8, 9], but there is still uncertainty about which cognitive domains can be improved by treatment [10]
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