Neuropsychological profile in bipolar disorder: a preliminary study of monotherapy lithium-treated euthymic bipolar patients evaluated at a 2-year interval

• Published in: Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica Vol. 118; no. 5; pp. 373 - 381
• Main Authors: Mur, M., Portella, M. J., Martínez-Arán, A., Pifarré, J., Vieta, E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-11-2008; Blackwell
• Subjects: Adult; Antimanic Agents - therapeutic use; Biological and medical sciences; Bipolar disorder; Bipolar Disorder - diagnosis; Bipolar Disorder - drug therapy; Cognition & reasoning; Cognition Disorders - diagnosis; Cognition Disorders - drug therapy; Drug therapy; euthymia; Female; Humans; Lithium; Lithium Carbonate - therapeutic use; Longitudinal Studies; longitudinal study; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Neuropharmacology; neuropsychological impairment; Neuropsychological Tests - statistics & numerical data; Neuropsychology; Pharmacology. Drug treatments; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer; Psychoanaleptics: cns stimulant, antidepressant agent, nootropic agent, mood stabilizer..., (alzheimer disease); Psychobiology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopharmacology; Reference Values; Mood disorder; Human; Executive function; neuropsychological impairment; Cognitive disorder; Psychotropic; Attention; Pharmacotherapy; Lithium; Bipolar disorder; Cognition; longitudinal study; Velocity; Treatment; Follow up study; Mood stabilizer; Information processing; Evolution; Euthymia
• ISSN: 0001-690X; 1600-0447; 0065-1591
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0447.2008.01245.x

Objective:  To investigate the cognitive impairment of a sample of euthymic bipolar patients treated with lithium monotherapy at baseline in a 2‐year longitudinal study.
Method:  Fifteen DSM‐IV‐TR bipolar out‐patients and 15 healthy‐matched controls were cognitively assessed twice over a 2‐year follow‐up. All patients underwent lithium monotherapy on the first evaluation, and they were euthymic in both evaluations. Cognitive assessment was performed by means of a neuropsychological test battery tapping into the main cognitive domains (executive function, attention, processing speed, verbal memory and visual memory).
Results:  Repeated measures multivariate analysis of variance showed that the bipolar disorder group was cognitively impaired in the executive domain, attention and processing speed, and such deficits were maintained over time.
Conclusion:  Our results showed that executive dysfunction is the main long‐term neuropsychological deficit of bipolar disorder. Also, the persistence of these deficits did not seem to be influenced by any clinical or pharmacological variables.