Investigation of social cognition and cognitive impairment among patients with bipolar disorder, their healthy first-degree relatives, and the control group

Abstract

Evidence regarding cognitive function in relatives of patients with bipolar disorder (BP) is controversial. This study aims to investigate social cognition and cognitive impairment among patients with BP, their healthy relatives (BP-Rel), and the healthy control group (HCs). A total of 180 participants in this study participated in three groups of 60 people, BP, BP-Rel, and HCs. All subjects were examined by the Bar-On emotional quotient inventory (Bar-On EQ-i), Gross Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross -ERQ), and Screen for Cognitive Impairment in Psychiatry (SCIP) scale. In addition, the clinical and demographic data of the participants were also collected and analyzed by appropriate statistical methods (one-way analysis of variance, chi-square test, and correlation coefficient). Compared to BP-Rel and HCs, BP patients had lower overall emotional intelligence (EI) and emotion regulation (ER) scores. The overall scores of these sales were lower in BP-Rel compared to the control group. In addition, we also studied the correlation of the mentioned scales with SCIP subscales. Except for the working memory test and verbal fluency test, other SCIP subscales had a positive and significant correlation with the EI scale (p<.05). Regarding ER scale, all subscales of SCIP had a positive and significant correlation with the emotion regulation scale (p<.05). Healthy relatives of BP patients may also have maladaptive emotion regulation strategies. More studies are needed to confirm the above evidence on this issue.