This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Citing articles on HighWire  • Citing articles on ISI (171)  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Neurology  • Cognitive Disorders  • Bipolar Disorder  • Public Health  • Substance Abuse/ Alcoholism  • Alert me on articles by topic

A Preliminary Study

Wilfred G. van Gorp, PhD; Lori Altshuler, MD; David C. Theberge, MA; Jeffery Wilkins, MD; Wilfrid Dixon, PhD

Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998;55:41-46.

Background  Few studies of the neurocognitive performance of patients with bipolar disorder have been performed while patients are in the euthymic state.

Methods  Twenty-five euthymic bipolar patients (12 with and 13 without a history of alcohol dependence) were compared with 22 normal control subjects on a neuropsychological test battery assessing a range of cognitive domains. The relationship between subjects' neurocognitive performance and the course-of-illness variables (lifetime episodes and duration of mania, depression, or both), as well as current lithium level, was determined.

Results  The results indicated differences across the groups, with the bipolar patients with and without alcohol dependence performing more poorly than controls on tests of verbal memory. Furthermore, bipolar subjects with a history of alcohol dependence had additional decrements in executive (ie, frontal lobe) functions when compared with controls. For subjects in the bipolar group, lifetime months of mania and depression were negatively correlated with performance in verbal memory and several executive function measures.

Conclusions  Our findings support the presence of persistent neurocognitive difficulties in patients with long-standing bipolar disorder who are not in the psychiatrically acute state or who are suffering the effects of alcohol abuse and suggest that there may be an aggregate negative effect of lifetime duration of bipolar illness on memory and frontal or executive systems.

From the Department of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College, White Plains, NY (Dr van Gorp); and Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, UCLA School of Medicine, and Veterans Affairs Medical Center, West Los Angeles (Drs Altshuler, Wilkins, and Dixon and Mr Theberge).

RELATED ARTICLE

Understanding Manic-depressive Illness
Frederick K. Goodwin and S. Nassir Ghaemi
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1998;55(1):23-25.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT  

THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES

Executive Function and Employment Status Among Veterans With Bipolar Disorder
Altshuler et al.
Psychiatr. Serv. 2007;58:1441-1447.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

How Should DSM-V Criteria for Schizophrenia Include Cognitive Impairment?
Keefe and Fenton
Schizophr Bull 2007;33:912-920.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cognitive impairment in bipolar II disorder
Torrent et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2006;189:254-259.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Importance of Cognition in the Conceptualization of both Dementia and Severe Mental Illness in Older People.
Twamley and Harvey
AJGP 2006;14:387-390.
FULL TEXT  

Neuropsychological dysfunction, soft neurological signs and social disability in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder
GOSWAMI et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2006;188:366-373.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A Summary of the FDA-NIMH-MATRICS Workshop on Clinical Trial Design for Neurocognitive Drugs for Schizophrenia
Buchanan et al.
Schizophr Bull 2005;31:5-19.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Neurocognitive impairment in euthymic patients with bipolar affective disorder
Thompson et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2005;186:32-40.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Does the risk of developing dementia increase with the number of episodes in patients with depressive disorder and in patients with bipolar disorder?
Kessing and Andersen
J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2004;75:1662-1666.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The Effect of Previous Alcohol Abuse on Cognitive Function in HIV Infection
Green et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:249-254.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cognitive Function Across Manic or Hypomanic, Depressed, and Euthymic States in Bipolar Disorder
Martinez-Aran et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2004;161:262-270.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Association Between Cognitive Functioning and Employment Status of Persons With Bipolar Disorder
Dickerson et al.
Psychiatr. Serv. 2004;55:54-58.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Bipolar Disorder: State- and Trait-Related Dysfunction in Ventral Prefrontal Cortices
Blumberg et al.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2003;60:601-609.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder
Rubinsztein and Sahakian
Br. J. Psychiatry 2002;181:440-440.
FULL TEXT  

The neuropathology of primary mood disorder
Harrison
Brain 2002;125:1428-1449.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Cognitive impairment in bipolar affective disorder: implications for the bipolar diathesis
FERRIER and THOMPSON
Br. J. Psychiatry 2002;180:293-295.
FULL TEXT  

Sustained attention deficit in bipolar disorder
CLARK et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2002;180:313-319.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Case--control study of neurocognitive function in euthymic patients with bipolar disorder: an association with mania
CAVANAGH et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2002;180:320-326.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

The search for the wandering thymostat: a review of some developments in bipolar disorder research
FERRIER et al.
Br. J. Psychiatry 2001;178 :s103-s106.
FULL TEXT  

High Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Binding in Asymptomatic Bipolar I Disorder: Sex Differences and Cognitive Correlates
Zubieta et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 2000;157:1619-1628.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Awareness of Illness and Subjective Experience of Cognitive Complaints in Patients With Bipolar I and Bipolar II Disorder
Pallanti et al.
Am. J. Psychiatry 1999;156:1094-1096.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

Understanding Manic-depressive Illness
Goodwin and Ghaemi
Arch Gen Psychiatry 1998;55:23-25.
FULL TEXT