Citation

Martino DJ, Strejilevich SA, Torralva T, Manes F. Psychol. Med. 2011; 41(6): 1319-1327.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1017/S0033291710001832

PMID

20860871

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The main aim of this study was to compare a large population of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) types I and II strictly defined as euthymic with healthy controls on measures of decision making. An additional aim was to compare performance on a decision-making task between patients with and without a history of suicide attempt.
METHOD: Eighty-five euthymic patients with BD-I or BD-II and 34 healthy controls were included. All subjects completed tests to assess verbal memory, attention and executive functions, and a decision-making paradigm (the Iowa Gambling Task, IGT).
RESULTS: Both groups of patients had worse performance than healthy controls on measures of verbal memory, attention and executive function. No significant differences were found between BD-I, BD-II and healthy controls on measures of decision making. By contrast, patients with a history of suicide attempt had lower performance in the IGT than patients without a history of suicide attempt.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with euthymic BD-I and BD-II had intact decision-making abilities, suggesting that this does not represent a reliable trait marker of the disorder. In addition, our results provide further evidence of an association between impairments in decision making and vulnerability to suicidal behavior.

Language: en

Keywords

Humans; Risk Factors; Adult; Female; Male; Middle Aged; Decision Making; Suicide, Attempted; Neuropsychological Tests; Affect; Attention; Reference Values; Psychometrics; Executive Function; Mental Recall; Bipolar Disorder; Gambling; Verbal Learning