Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
Psychopathology. 2011;44(1):40-5. doi: 10.1159/000317577. Epub 2010 Oct 29.
Despite increasing evidence of cognitive dysfunctions in bipolar I disorder, there is no specific neuropsychological profile of the disorder.
The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of processing speed on other cognitive functions in a population-based sample of 32 familial bipolar I disorder patients, their 40 unaffected first-degree relatives and 55 controls. A neuropsychological test battery was administered to all participants, and the effect of processing speed on other cognitive functions was analyzed with the digit symbol subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised both in within- and between-group comparisons.
After adjusting for the effect of processing speed, only small differences were detected in short-delay cued recall and in long-delay memory between patients and controls, as well as between patients and relatives. Relatives scored better than controls only in verbal ability. Processing speed had a significant effect on nearly all scores, differing by group when patients, relatives and controls were examined separately, the effect being most extensive in patients.
These results support the view that impaired processing speed in particular contributes to a range of cognitive dysfunctions in bipolar disorder. However, it may not be specific to bipolar I disorder and can possibly be considered a shared endophenotype with other mental disorders.
尽管有越来越多的证据表明双相情感障碍 I 型存在认知功能障碍，但该障碍仍没有特定的神经心理学特征。
本研究旨在调查在一个基于人群的样本中，处理速度对 32 名家族性双相情感障碍 I 型患者、他们的 40 名未受影响的一级亲属和 55 名对照者的其他认知功能的影响。所有参与者都接受了神经心理学测试，并用韦氏成人智力量表修订版的数字符号测验来分析处理速度对其他认知功能的影响，包括在组内和组间比较中。
在调整了处理速度的影响后，仅在短延迟线索回忆和长延迟记忆方面，患者与对照组之间，以及患者与亲属之间存在微小差异。亲属在言语能力方面的得分优于对照组。处理速度对几乎所有的评分都有显著影响，当分别检查患者、亲属和对照组时，各组之间的差异不同，这种影响在患者中最为广泛。
这些结果支持了这样一种观点，即处理速度的受损特别导致了双相情感障碍的一系列认知功能障碍。然而，它可能不是双相情感障碍 I 型所特有的，并且可能被认为是与其他精神障碍共享的内表型。
