Cognitive dysfunction in a sample of people with bipolar affective disorder

الملخص EN

Objective: The neurocognitive function of people diagnosed with bipolar affective disorder has been the focus of debate for decades.

Method: A random sample of 40 euthymic patients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder were recruited from Helwan Mental Hospital and a cross matched control group was selected.

The Structured Clinical Interview for DSMIV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I), Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale III (WAIS-III) Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R), and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D) were administered to both groups.

Results: There was a significant statistical difference in all WAIS subtests except Vocabulary and in the following WMS-R subtests: Current Information, Mental Control, Logical Memory, Visual Reproduction, Full Memory Scale.

Whereas, differences in the Orientation and Memory Span for Digits subtests were significant.

Positive family history significantly influenced performance on the WAIS-III for Digit Span, Object Assembly, Deterioration Index subtests.

Duration of illness affected performance significantly on the WAIS-III Digit Coding subtest and the Current Information and Orientation subsets of WMS-R.

Onset at an early age was positively correlated with Vocabulary, Object Assembly, and Performance IQ of the WAIS-III subtests.

An increased number of episodes was significantly correlated with deterioration in performance on the WMS-R IQ Test and Current Information subtests.

Conclusion: Cognitive impairment is a feature of bipolar disorder across all its stages and all future modalities of treatment should consider it.