Evaluation of Executive Functions in Bipolar Disorder

Author(s):  
Ghada Hamdi
2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S212-S212
Author(s):  
B. Suciu ◽  
R. Paunescu ◽  
I. Miclutia

IntroductionThe majority of studies revealed that cognitive deficits are an important aspect in many psychiatric illnesses, such as bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder. In the past, cognitive impairment was considered part of depression and it was expected to diminish as other mood symptoms improved with treatment.MethodThis study is based on the review of recent literature, performed in order to understand the dimension of executive impairment in unipolar and bipolar depression.ResultsBoth unipolar and bipolar depressed patients display cognitive deficits in several cognitive domains within executive functions. Different subcomponents of executive functions are altered in both types of patients, but impairments in sustained attention appear specific in bipolar depression while dysfunctional divided attention is reported in unipolar disorder. Studies describe deficits in planning strategies and monitoring processes that are characteristically impaired in unipolar depressed patients. Also these subjects tend to make more perseverative responses suggesting set shifting deficits and moreover they require longer time and more cognitive effort in order to accomplish tasks involving inhibitory control or cognitive flexibility. Other findings suggest that bipolar I depressed patients perform worse than bipolar II depressed patients and unipolar depressed patients across all executive functions especially in the decision making process that is considered to be a trait marker for bipolar disorder with no differences between the two types of bipolar subjects.ConclusionsExecutive functions represent a term that includes a higher order of cognitive abilities with deficits that are present in both disorders but display slightly different patterns of impairment.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2022 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 100214
Author(s):  
Zeinab El Nagar ◽  
Heba H. El Shahawi ◽  
Safeya M. Effat ◽  
Mona M. El Sheikh ◽  
Ahmed Adel ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lili Tang ◽  
Juan Liu ◽  
Yue Zhu ◽  
Jia Duan ◽  
Yifan Chen ◽  
...  

Background: A large body of evidence suggests that epigenetic modification including DNA methylation plays a critical role in BD's pathogenesis while the identification of methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs) shed light on the interpretation of the function of genetic variants in non-coding regions. The intronic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs10994336 within the ANK3 has emerged as one of the most replicated risk variants for bipolar disorder (BD) in genome-wide association studies. Whether rs10994336 functions as a meQTL to mediate the association between genotype and phenotype remains unclear.Method: A total of 154 patients with BD and 181 healthy controls (HC) were recruited. The genotypes of rs10994336 and methylation levels of CpG sites within ANK3 were tested. Executive functions were assessed using a computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).Results: Bipolar disorder patients with the risk-T allele of rs10994336 scored lower on tests of executive function compared to homozygous CC carriers, after controlling for age, gender, and education level. No significant difference was found in HC individuals. The risk-T allele is associated with a lower methylation level of CpG site cg02172182 in HC after multiple corrections and replicated in the BD group in the same direction. Further mediation analysis revealed that the cg02172182 methylation significantly mediated the association between the polymorphism rs10994336 and PE index of WCST in patients with BD.Conclusion: Our study suggests that BD-related genetic variant rs10994336 in ANK3 impacts executive functions by modulating ANK3 methylation, supporting the theory that methylation acts as a mediator between genotype and phenotype.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (S1) ◽  
pp. S122-S122
Author(s):  
R.S. Ilhan ◽  
V. Senturk-Cankorur

IntroductionMost of the studies have indicated that there have been neurocognitive impairments especially in the domains of executive functions, attention, verbal and working memory among euthymic patients with bipolar disorder type I (BD-I). However, there has been limited research investigating neurocognitive functioning in euthymic patients with BD- II.Objectives/aimsAim of this study was to investigate neurocognitive functions in euthymic BD-II patients. Our hypothesis was that euthymic BD-II patients would have neurocognitive impairments in the domains of executive functions, attention, verbal and working memory.MethodsEuthymic BD-II patients (n = 37) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 35) were compared in terms of their neurocognitive functioning in the domains of executive functions assesed by the number of perseverative errors, non-perseverative errors and category completed on the Wisconsin Cart Sorting Test (WCST); working memory assessed by Auditory Consonant Trigrams (ACT); immediate verbal memory assessed by the Logical Memory subscale of the Wechsler Memory Scale I (WMS I) and attention assesed by Stroop Colour-Word Interference Test (SCWIT). Euthymic state was confirmed by the low scores both on Hamilton Depression Rating Scale, Young Mania Rating Scale.ResultsSignificant differences were found between two groups in terms of WCST non-perseverative errors (Z = 3.8, P < 0.01) and category completed subtests (Z = 3.8, P < 0.01), ACT (t = 2.97, P < 0.01) WMSI (Z = 2.4, P = 0.01), SCWIT (t = 3.52, P < 0.01) performances.ConclusionsOur study indicated that euthymic BD-II patients had poorer performance on the domains of executive functions, attention, working memory and verbal memory than the HC group. But future studies with large samples are needed to support our results.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (S1) ◽  
pp. S213-S213 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Tournikioti ◽  
P. Ferentinos ◽  
I. Michopoulos ◽  
D. Dikeos ◽  
C. Soldatos ◽  
...  

IntroductionBipolar disorder (BD) is frequently associated with cognitive deficits in attention, verbal memory and executive functions that have been related to various clinical characteristics of the disorder.ObjectivesHowever, few studies have examined the effect of gender on cognition despite its clinical relevance.AimsThe aim of our study was to investigate potential diagnosis-specific gender effects on visual memory/learning and executive functions in BD.MethodsCognitive performance of 60 bipolar-I patients and 30 healthy controls was evaluated by using CANTAB battery tasks targeting spatial memory (SRM), paired associative learning (PAL), executive functions (ID/ED, SOC). A multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) of neuropsychological parameters was performed with gender and diagnosis as fixed effects and age and education as covariates. Following univariate analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were undertaken to examine the effect of gender on each neuropsychological task.ResultsBipolar patients showed significantly poorer performance in paired associative learning (PAL), set shifting (ID/ED) and planning (SOC). Moreover, a diagnosis specific gender effect was observed for cognitive functioning in BD (gender × diagnosis interaction P = 0.029). Specifically, male healthy controls outperformed healthy females in tasks of visual memory/learning but this pattern was not sustained (SRM) or was even reversed (PAL) in BD patients.ConclusionsThe present study is one of the few studies that have examined the effect of gender on neurocognitive function in BD. Our findings indicate that the gender-related variation observed in healthy subjects is disrupted in BD. Moreover, they suggest that gender may modulate the degree of frontotemporal dysregulation observed in BD.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.


2005 ◽  
Vol 62 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 543-550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanja Totic-Poznanovic ◽  
Dragan Marinkovic ◽  
Dragan Pavlovic ◽  
Vladimir Paunovic

Aim. To determine if the patients with bipolar affective disorder, after the depressive phase, would exhibit cognitive impairment in remission. Methods. Twenty three euthymic patients with bipolar disorder were matched, on a case-by-case basis, to twenty-one healthy subjects in the control group, for the presence of the symptoms of depression. The patients and the control group were tested with a battery of neuropsychological tests. Results. Impairments were found in the patients compared with the control group in tests of verbal learning and memory and in tests of executive function. Verbal learning and memory, as well as executive functions, did not correlate either with the clinical indices of patients, or with the demographic and baseline clinical measures of depression. Conclusion. Impaired verbal learning and memory and executive functions may represent a trait rather than the state variables in bipolar disorder.


2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 198-198
Author(s):  
G. Da Ponte ◽  
T. Neves ◽  
M. Lobo

IntroductionThe presence of cognitive dysfunction in bipolar disorder is well established, but in the euthymic phase appear a few studies that point to the absence of cognitive deficits.ObjectivesAlert to cases of euthymic bipolar disorder with no cognitive dysfunction.MethodsReview of relevant literature and description of a clinical case with psychological tests that assess memory and executive functions.ResultsDescription of a clinical case: FP is a middle age woman, early retired, with a bipolar disorder type 2, which begins at age 30.Her disease has several depressive episodes, and in the last 10 years, she spent most of the days lying in bed and repeatedly resorted to the emergency department for excessive voluntary drug intoxication or simply because she “wanted” to be hospitalized; her husband could not stand this situation. In September of 2009, in addition to the medical and psychological consultations, she starts attending group therapy; over the next 6 months her medication was changed and finally her disease goes into remission.The psychological tests, made at euthymic phase, show’s no significant deficits in verbal memory and executive functions.ConclusionsThis patient has a disease with prolonged course and multiple hospitalizations and drug treatments, but don’t present relevant cognitive deficits, which may point to the fact that cognitive impairment is determined by biological factors.


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