Abstract
(1) Background: bipolar disorder (BD) is a chronic disease that often leads to functional impairment. The objective of this study is to elucidate which variables are associated with better functional outcomes in a sample of euthymic patients with BD. (2) Methods: patients were recruited at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona and they underwent a clinical interview, a functional assessment, and a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation. After that, patients were divided into two groups according to the Functioning Assessment Short Test total score: functionally remitted vs. functionally impaired. Following this, a multivariate logistic regression was run in order to identify clinical, demographic and cognitive factors associated with functional remission. (3) Results: a total of 420 euthymic patients with BD were assessed for this study, distributed as follows: functionally remitted (n = 221) and functionally impaired (n = 199). Finally, the multivariate logistic regression revealed that only five variables significantly contributed to the model, including: lifetime history of psychotic symptoms (the variable that contributed the most to the model), followed by the Hamilton Depression total score, and cognitive performance (executive functions and verbal memory). (4) Conclusions: treatments to ensure a good functional outcome in BD should specially prevent psychosis, target subthreshold depressive symptoms and enhance cognition, more specifically executive functions and verbal memory.
Highlights
The multivariate logistic regression revealed that only five variables significantly contributed to the model, including: lifetime history of psychotic symptoms, followed by the Hamilton Depression total score, and cognitive performance
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a lifelong illness that often results in functional impairment [1,2]
The same group of research has provided a classification of severity based on the total global score of the Functioning Assessment Short Test (FAST) which were estimated taking into account the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores as a reference, and as a result, four categories were identified: none, mild, moderate and severe impairment [6]
Summary
Bipolar disorder (BD) is a lifelong illness that often results in functional impairment [1,2]. The same group of research has provided a classification of severity based on the total global score of the FAST which were estimated taking into account the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores as a reference, and as a result, four categories were identified: none, mild, moderate and severe impairment [6]. This classification may be useful to measure clinically meaningful changes in functioning after a given treatment, and to study the variables associated to each of the above-mentioned categories. The aim of the present report is to study demographic, clinical and neurocognitive variables associated with functional recovery and remission in a large sample (more than 400 patients) of euthymic patients suffering from BD
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